Video: Man on scooter snatches chain from elderly woman in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The enthusiasm shown by a traffic cop on duty at Museum Junction in Thiruvananthapuram helped the city police arrest a notorious chain snatcher within hours after he snatched the gold chain of an aged woman on Wednesday.


The accused Sajeev, 28, of Chithra Nagar near Poojapura, allegedly snatched the gold chain off an elderly woman, Parvathy, of Kairal Garden colony at Thirumala on Wednesday around 10.30am. Parvathy was returning home after visiting a temple. The accused approached the women pretending to ask for an address and then snatched her chain and fled on his motorcycle.

The crime was captured by the surveillance cameras in the locality. Soon, the Control Room officials passed the identification details of the accused and the vehicle through a wireless communication system. Traffic cop Biju kumar was on duty at Museum junction when he received the message. He decided to scan the area and found out a motorcycle that shared similar identifications of the accused parked near Kanakakkunnu Palace, around two hours after the snatching was reported. He waited near the motorcycle and detained Sajeev when he returned to take the vehicle. He summoned the cops of Museum police station nearby, who took the accused under custody.

Meanwhile, the shadow cops turned up at the station and identified Sajeev as a habitual offender, who had committed a series of similar snatchings in the recent past. His modus was to target elderly women, who were too week to resist his attacks. He was then taken to Poojapura police station, where he was arrested.

The police said that the Kairali Garden Residents Association had installed surveillance cameras under Operation Kaval Kannukal, a special initiative of former City Police Commissioner P Prakash.