3 conmen arrested, 20 chain-snatching cases solved

With the arrest of three persons, the Crime Branch unit III said it has succeeded in detecting 20 cases of chain snatching reported from Kothrud, Sanghvi, Pimpri, Chinchwad, Chatuhshrungi, Bibwewadi, Vishrambaug, Hadapsar and Sahakar Nagar.

Police arrested —Tabrez Zakir Jaffri (26), Asud Ajboor Jaffri (20), both from Bhiwandi, and Mohammad Gulam Hussain Jaffri (45) from Kalyan — and recovered 1.80 kg gold worth Rs 35 lakh from them. Two of their accomplices are absconding, police said on Tuesday.

According to police, the gang used to target elderly women going for morning walks. Posing as policemen, they would ask the women to hand over their ornaments to them on the pretext of a murder in the neighbourhood or the police banning women from wearing ornaments due to the murder. "They were arrested from Kalyan on November 16 and were remanded in police custody till Wednesday," said the police at a press meet on Tuesday.

Further probe revealed that the five were into the act since January and used to come to Pune from Mumbai on motorcycles. They would introduce themselves as cops. Three of them used to find targets, while two others used to be ready to flee on their motorbikes. Jaffri used to approach the women with various excuses and ask them to remove their ornaments. Jaffri also confessed that in some cases where bangles could not be removed easily, he used to provide women with oil and himself removed the ornaments.

There are chances that more such cases might come to the fore, police said.

Appeal to citizens

Police have urged citizens to not remove their ornaments if someone asks them to do so and they should not fall prey to such excuses. Also, if anyone claims to be a cop, people should ask for his identity proof or call on 100.

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