2 inter-state chain snatchers, 2 jewellers held by Noida police

Noida: Four men, including two inter-state chain snatchers and two jewellers, were arrested by Noida police on Sunday night and Monday morning, and stolen chains

Noida: Four men, including two inter-state chain snatchers and two jewellers, were arrested by Noida police on Sunday night and Monday morning, and stolen chains and gold was recovered from them.

HT Image

The prime suspects, Monu and his accomplice Vipin, who is also his relative, had robbed a jewellery shop owner of his gold chain at gunpoint in Achher market in Greater Noida. Vipin had been nabbed following a police encounter with sector 24 police on November 23.

On Sunday night, Monu and another accomplice, Anil, were intercepted by Noida police near the Adobe crossing. They were both injured in a police chase after they tried to escape. Police recovered a stolen motorcycle, two countrymade pistols and parts of two gold chains and melted gold from them.

“Monu has 11 cases of chain snatching against him in Hyderabad and spent two years in jail there. He has at least 29 more cases in Gautam Budh Nagar and we are looking for more in nearby districts. Anil has at least 11 in our district,” said deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, Rajesh S.

Police said the gang snatched chains and sold stolen goods to jewellers.

“One such jeweller is Bulandhshahr-based Kailash to whom they have been selling chains since 2011. Kailash had gone to jail once previously in 2016. He was working with Monu in Hyderabad but had managed to escape when he was caught. He and another jeweller Ved Prakash were arrested today following inputs from the snatchers,” the DCP said.

Police officials said after the Beta 2 incident, the men had snatched a chain from a woman buying vegetables in sector 93 on the same evening. The bike that had been recovered in the encounter on November 23 had been stolen from sector 58 on November 9.

Parts of chains recovered from them were snatched from a woman near the sector 11 mother dairy on September 25 and from another woman in A block Sector 22 on September 30.