Mumbai Police nab notorious chain snatching gang

Before striking either early morning or evening the four conducted a recee of the target area to check for nakabandis and CCTVs They attempted to commit crimes in a manner that they were not captured on CCTVs IllustrationRavi JadhavRest easy and dont turn away delivery boys The Andheri police last week arrested one of the citys most notorious chainsnatchers Jafar Deshmukh 38 alias Chikna and his gang of three after they managed to identify their unique modus operandi They also learned that the gang has been active for a year and connected them to at least 123 incidents of chain snatching across the cityAt the time of committing the crime they wore similar clothes to give an appearance of being delivery boys for a pizza joint or courier firm so that if they were caught on camera fleeing they had an alibi3step planThe police stumbled on the gangs strategy of disguising themselves as delivery boys for pizza joints and others and robbing people on the Western Express Highway after the arrest of one Naeem Ansari 27 He was caught riding a motorcycle without a number plate and on being asked to produce the documents for it the police realised that it was a stolen bikeAfter they committed the crime and snatched chains from senior citizens out on a walk they ditched their stolen motorcycles and went their separate ways They divided up the loot by selling the gold at throwaway prices As part of their modus operandi before conducting any operation they first conducted a recce of the area to check for any police nakabandis and hunt for CCTVs installed Sources said They avoided committing the crime if CCTVs were spotted This was to avoid being captured in any footage Then the rider and the pillion rider wore the same clothing that made them look like delivery boys for a pizza joint or a courier firm This was to dodge the police officials if they were caught in CCTV while fleeing with goldGrab of the CCTV footage that captured themCracking the codeThe police in the western region of the city had been receiving frequent complaints of chain snatchings during early mornings and evenings and most of the targets were senior citizens out for walks Working on the complaints the Andheri police noticed that the common denomination was the timings of the crimesJafar Deshmukh alias ChiknaSenior police inspector Pandit Thorat of Andheri police station told midday We had been observing regular nakabandis and one of the four accused was caught with a bike without any number plate He was asked to produce the documents he could not and he was then detained and questioned which led to busting the gangThe police sources added that they suspected the gang used stolen motorbikes to conduct chain snatchings They also removed the number plates of the bikes to make them unrecognisable and ditched them after committing the crime They divided the loot between them by selling the gold chains at throwaway prices After Ansaris arrest who revealed Jafars involvement we managed to arrest all the accused by Wednesday an officer said The police has also recovered a gold chain and a stolen motorbike from the arrested accusedAlso read Senior citizen robbed of gold chain by bikeborne snatchers in MumbaiThe other two arrested accused have been identified as Dhiraj Kanojia 30 and Abdul Hamid alias Shoaib 28Past comes to hauntThorat added It has been learnt that they have been involved in over 123 chain snatchings across the city We are further investigating their involvement in these other casesThe Vile Parle police earlier arrested Deshmukh in 2015 after two of his associates were caught redhanded while attempting to flee sources added