Police bust gang of chain snatchers

PUNE: The crime branch nabbed two chain snatchers while their third accomplice managed to escape at a housing society in Wagholi on Friday afternoon.
A policeman who scaled the wall to catch one of the thieves suffered minor injuries. The thief too got hurt. Another suspect has been admitted to Sassoon hospital with a fractured leg. The third suspect escaped.
The crime branch said the three-member gang had snatched five chains in a day. They would stop women on the pretext of asking address and run away with their chains.
The incidents happened in Bharati Vidyapeeth, Kothrud and Warje-Malwadi areas between 8.30 am and 9.30 am on Friday.
Additional commissioner of police Shahaji Solunke fanned his teams across the city to nab the suspects on the basis of a CCTV film gathered from one of the targeted areas.
Javed Pathan of crime branch unit III identified two of the gang members. He came to know their motorcycle registration number (MH04/2060).
A police team spotted the bike in Chandanagar. The team picked up their trail and stopped on finding the bike parked outside Tara Tarang society at Shri Ganeshnagar, Wagholi.
The residents of the building told police that the suspects were living on the second floor flat of the society since last fourmonths.
A team led by senior inspector Sunil Pawar of crime branch (unit III) reached the flat, but the gang members sensed trouble and tried to escape from the balcony by climbing down the drainage pipeline. One of them escaped, but the other two fell in a ditch while trying to jump the society wall.
Constable Sujit Pawar, who followed them, nabbed Moosa Raj Sayed Irani (23) of Ambivili in Thane. Pawar and Moosa suffered minor injuries.
Moosa's aide, Haider Akram Jafari alias Irani (25) from Nagpur, got his leg fractured in a hurry to escape. The third suspect Ali Akbar Irani also from Nagpur, made a daring escape.
A search conducted at the flat led to the recovery of 175 gram gold ornaments, some cash and two motorcycles, totaling Rs 6 lakh.
Moosa told police during probe that the three of them had snatched five chains on Friday morning.