The Vidyaranyapura police on Wednesday arrested two men who allegedly flew from Mumbai to Bengaluru for a chain-snatching spree.

Mohammed Ali, 23, and Syed Karaar Hussain, 37, were allegedly regular “visitors” to Bengaluru. On their first visit, they drove to Bengaluru on a high-end motorcycle that they had allegedly stolen in Mumbai. They would park it at Cantonment railway station and use it whenever they came to Bengaluru.

“For their later visits, Ali and Hussain used to take a flight from Mumbai, target women and snatch chains on the motorcycle and return to Cantonment station to board a train back to Mumbai,” said Kala Krishnaswamy, DCP (Northeast). Their luck ran out when the Vidyaranyapura police, after going through CCTV camera footage in a chain-snatching case last November, tracked down the bike to Cantonment station.

A policeman was deployed to keep a watch on the motorcycle and the two was caught when they came to the parking lot for it.

The accused reportedly confessed they would take flights to major cities across India, and told the police they preferred Bengaluru and Chennai as women here wear expensive jewellery.

Hussain had been arrested by the Kodigehalli police last year but secured bail and returned to Mumbai.

With their arrest, the police claim to have solved 20 chain-snatching cases reported since August 2018.