Wily Lucknow chain snatchers get caught in police dragnet

Police arrested two chain snatchers on Tuesday and claimed to have worked out the chain-snatching case which happened on June 9 in Vikas Nagar, Sector 3, where the men on a bike snatched the gold chain from Jivanti Joshi, a Vikas Nagar resident.

“After the incident was reported on June 10, an FIR under 392 was lodged by Vikas Nagar police. Police also seized a white bike used in the crime and the gold chain and sent the duo to judicial custody while adding IPC 411 in the FIR,” said DCP, North, Abhijith R Shankar, adding that the accused were identified as Shiva Soni, 26, and Abhishek Soni, 22, both Lucknow residents.

According to the police, the men first drove their bike to a secluded place in the Gudamba area where they got their number plate removed.

“They took alleys from Gudamba to Vikas Nagar avoiding CCTVs to the place of the incident. They then snatched the chain from the woman and instead of taking short routes, they took the opposite direction towards Ayodhya. Using Kisan path, they re-entered the city and then again took alleys to reach home,” the DCP said.

He said that the duo made a reconnaissance of the route and the CCTV cameras installed on it and then devised the plan to avoid getting identified and tracked. They travelled extra miles to and from the point of crime.

However, the police were able to identify them through informers who tipped them off, and the vehicle-checking drive they launched in Vikas Nagar.

During police interrogation, the duo said that they committed the crime to meet expenses and also to pay the EMIs for two expensive bikes they had purchased.