Bengaluru police detain man in SMVT chain-snatching cases, recover 91g gold

A broken section of a gold chain led railway police to a 26-year-old man suspected of snatching jewellery from women on slow-moving trains leaving Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal.

Byappanahalli Railway Police detained Abhishek Avinash on August 11 after surveillance around the station. Police said he is linked to three cases registered under Section 309(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Police alleged that he targeted women seated near train windows or standing by doors as long-distance trains left platforms slowly, then got onto the tracks and fled. In one case, police said, a chain broke during the alleged snatching. The passenger retained one section, while investigators alleged that another section was found at the man’s residence.

A joint team of the Railway Protection Force and Crime Investigation Bureau recovered 91 grams of gold jewellery, police said. A GRP inspector said the man told investigators that he had taken a 29-gram mangalya chain in one case and 50 grams of chains in another, and had sold them to local jewellery shops.