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Accused in chain snatching case shot by Chennai police
Chennai police said they shot a man accused in a series of chain snatching incidents in self defense near the Taramani railway station, on Wednesday morning
Chennai police said they shot a man accused in a series of chain snatching incidents in self defense near the Taramani railway station, on Wednesday morning. The accused, identified as Jaffar Ghulam, was gunned down by the police after he opened fire using a pistol, said Greater Chennai commissioner of police, A Arun.
Three from Maharashtra have been accused in the case of a string of chain snatching in Chennai. Police caught Jaffar and his accomplice Misamum Dhusvasam Mesam from the Chennai airport on Tuesday as they tried to flee the city. “One of them (Jaffar) was inside the flight in the Chennai airport on Tuesday to go to Hyderabad when we alerted air traffic and we caught them,” Arun told reporters on Wednesday. The other accused Mesam was inside the airport and was not let into the flight because he lacked a proper identity card. The third accused Salman Husaain was in Chennai’s central railway station. They were also arrested on Tuesday and confessed to the crime, police said in a statement.
When Jafar was taken near Taramani railway station to recover the looted jewellery and the vehicle used in the crime, he took out a country gun which he had already hidden there from the vehicle used in the crime and fired at the police officers, police said in the statement.
“Despite repeated warnings from the police officers not to shoot, he fired again,” the statement added. He was injured when police fired in self defense and taken to a nearby private hospital for treatment where doctors declared that he was dead. His body has been kept at theRoyapettah Government Hospital Mortuary for post-mortem examination. Three police officers had accompanied the accused to the spot and had recovered six gold chains worth 26 sovereigns.
The criminal group is based in Mumbai. “This is a big gang when we checked with the Mumbai police. Newspapers there say they have more than 50 cases against them,” Arun said. He added that they had no local support but one of them had reached earlier to plan the crime. Their bike used in the crime was registered in Karnataka. ”We have to find out if it was stolen,” the commissioner said.
This is the fourth extra judicial killing in Chennai since start of 2024. Last July, an accused in the murder case of BSP leader K Armstrong, Thirivengadam, was killed when police said they shot in self defense when he tried to attack them with weapons when they had gone to the spot to recover them. Last September, two gangsters Kakkathope Balaji and Siezing Raja were shot in a span of a week. At the time, the National Human Rights Commission had summoned the commissioner to explain the killings and the state deputed a lawyer to explain that the police shot in self defense.
