Date:25/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/25/stories/2007062554550500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Students held on charge of chain snatching

Staff Reporter

They got inspiration from Hindi blockbuster Dhoom

Smart job: Superintendent of Police Mahesh Laddha displaying articles recovered from engineering students in Guntur on Sunday.

GUNTUR: Smitten by the western culture and lavish lifestyle, two engineering college students took to a series of chain snatchings in Guntur city to make fast bucks for supporting their soaring needs.

Women became easy targets for the two youth, who got inspiration from Hindi blockbuster Dhoom.

Lonely walkers on the sparsely-lit streets in residential areas like, Navabharat Nagar, J.K.C Colony, Krishna Nagar, Chandra Mouli Nagar were the sitting ducks for them. Five such cases were recorded in Pattahipuram police station since March.

Guntur Superintendent of Police Mahesh Chandra Laddha revealing the modus operandi of the two students at a press conference said that inspired by the Dhoom movie, the two had been snatching gold chains and speeding away on the bike owned by Pavuluri Rajesh, 20.

Loyala Engineering College Final Year student Rajesh, a resident of Gorantla and Bussa Pradeep, 20, another B.Tech second year student admitted to committing those crimes and police recovered gold chains valued at Rs.75,000 from them on Sunday.

The Crime Inspector D. Koteswara Rao, was instrumental in arresting two house burglars Mamillapalli Kishore, 22, a resident of Maruthi Nagar and Pasupuleti Bala Sankar, 27, hailing from Chebrolu.

They had jointly targeted posh houses with little or no security in Shyamalanagar, Arundelpet, Salipet and Maruthi Nagar, where they decamped with colour TVs, Personal Computers, sewing machine, gold jewellery and cash.

Both facing trial in several cases, had obtained bail and were committing these offences, the SP said. The value of booty recovered from the two totalled Rs.2.2 lakh. An auto-driver and painter pair Pilli Lavan Kumar, 20, and Ashodhi Sami Reddy, 26, again for leading a lavish lifestyle, took to stealing cash and baggage of passengers, burglary in houses with open windows or locked houses and decamped with articles valued at Rs.95,000 including some cash.