India: Arrests, jail terms fail to deter chain snatcher as he's always back to business

Chandigarh - Man has been involved in over a hundred chain snatching cases and has been convicted in 40 of them

An unrepentant 36-year-old chain snatcher has been involved in more than 100 cases in the ‘tricity’ comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula for 12 years since 2004. And despite the arrests and jail sentences, he is always back in his ‘trade.’

The Panchkula crime branch on Tuesday nabbed Devendra Singh, alias Vikki, of Delhi, who had snatched a gold chain earlier this month. The police had announced a Rs5,000 reward for information on the notorious offender. He was arrested along with an accomplice and remanded to two days police custody.

According to Aman Kumar, an inspector at the crime branch, Vikki was in jail from 2016 to 2020 and was back in his trade last year. Since 2004, he has been targeting women walking on the roads wearing jewellery. He would come on his bike along with an accomplice, snatch the jewellery and zoom away at full speed.

Vikki would soon leave the Chandigarh tricity area and would go to other cities or even to hideouts in Delhi-NCR where he would stay in rented places.