Bengaluru cops nab a chain snatcher like no other

Cops in Bengaluru are stumped after arresting a career criminal who snatched a record 159 gold chains across the state, sometimes four a day, recently.

Achyut Kumar Gani alias Vishwanath (35), from Koliwad near Hubballi, was exceptionally adept at robbing women wearing gold jewellery.

Wearing a full-face helmet and riding stolen motorcycles, he would snatch the gold chains in a flash and escape. To evade the cops, he changed his house every month.

Between 2014 and 2018, he robbed the gold chains of 155 women in Bengaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Hosapete, Bellari, Kumta, Hassan, Tumakuru, etc. He was so prolific that he sometimes snatched four chains a day, all at his wife's behest.

On June 17, 2018, police in Jnanabharathi caught him after shooting him in the leg. The arrest helped the police recover Rs 1 crore worth of stolen gold chains.

Gani spent the next four years in the Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara as an undertrial. In July this year, a court released him on bail. But within weeks, he was back to his old ways.

This time, he had two accomplices — Prajwal (23) and Prasanna Kumar (31), both habitual offenders whom he befriended in prison.

Together, the trio committed four chain snatchings, including one on September 10, 2022. Lathashri (56) was walking near her home in Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, T Dasarahalli, at 5.30 am when two men rode up on a motorcycle and snatched her gold chain.

Aided by CCTV footage and mobile phone evidence, police managed to arrest Prajwal and Prasanna. They led them to Gani, who was living in Seshadripuram.

The cops initially weren't sure who Gani was because of poor surveillance and data-keeping. "We do monitor people with long criminal records. But it's not always easy. To prevent them from repeating an offence, we need to physically surveil them and find out their whereabouts. This is painstaking," a police officer who's part of the investigation told DH.

The officer added that Gani's chain-snatching spree may well be a record. "I don't know of any other chain snatcher who's involved in so many cases," the officer said.

To rein in Gani, police said they might invoke the Goonda Act, which provides for imprisoning a serial offender for a year without bail.

But there's a catch: no chain snatcher has been arrested under the Goonda Act, which is usually invoked against people with a long record of serious crimes.