Chennai: Two incidents of chain snatching on the platform at Tambaram and Tirusulam railway stations in the last couple of days have left women commuters scared. At the Tambaram railway station, though an RPF man chased and recovered the chain from the suspect, he could not over power him. “My wife was shocked after the incident of snatching at Tambaram railway station on Sunday evening,” said Umapathy, employee of a gas company, and resident of Thiruvotriyur. He was traveling with his wife Kanimozhi, 28, and other family members from Kancheepuram when the incident happened.
“We were travelling in the vendor’s coach of a Tirumalpur-Beach EMU and it became very easy for the suspect to snatch the chain from behind. She managed to hold back half portion of the five sovereigns of thali chain while the other part was snatched away when the train started moving.”After pulling the alarm chain, passengers raised an alarm. An RPF sub inspector Jayaseelan chased the chain snatcher and recovered the chain, which was in his mouth, Umapathy said.
The chain-snatcher was well built and he managed to wriggle out of the SI’s clutches, police later said. But the chain was recovered and handed over to Kanimozhi. Umapathy said his wife took leave on Monday as she was in shock. Thangamma (74) of Shenoy Nagar was robbed of her two and half sovereigns of gold chain at Tirusulam railway station on Monday morning. “She also described the suspect as a well built man. The same man could be linked to both the incidents,” the police said.
CCTV cameras help cops arrest 3 chain-snatchers in Ashok Nagar
M.G.R Nagar police on Tuesday arrested three persons for indulging in chain snatching in and around Ashok Nagar. CCTV cameras installed recently in the neighborhood with the help of a sponsor helped the cops in nabbing the accused, police said. The accused Dhanraj (22), Balaji (20) both from Pallavaram and Prabhu (23) of Saidapet were caught while they were doing rounds of the area scouting for possible targets. They have been remanded to judicial custody.
“We recovered their images from the CCTV grabs and found that they were targeting women in deserted streets during evening hours,” said a police officer. All the accused are high school dropouts and have been doing odd jobs in their neighbourhood. Police recovered 13 sovereigns of gold jewellery from them.
Ashok Nagar and West Mambalam areas are under extra surveillance with the installation of 24 new CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood at the start of this month. A 52 inch LED television to monitor live feeds from the camera has also been set up at the Ashok Nagar police station, police said.
