Chain snatcher swallows gold, doctors feed him laxative and bananas to retrieve it

A 20-year-old rowdy swallowed a woman's gold chain after snatching it during a scuffle. But doctors were able to retrieve the chain after feeding him bananas and a laxative.

The dramatic incident took place in MT Street near KR Market, central Bengaluru, on Saturday night.

Hema was wearing a mangalya gold chain weighing more than 70 grams and a 12-gram pendant necklace when a gang of three men waylaid her around 8.50 pm. One of the suspects — Vijay alias Lovely, of Byatarayanapura — tried to snatch her chain but she held onto it with one hand and gripped him with the other hand. The attacker pushed her, making her fall, but she didn't let him go. At the same time, she raised an alarm, drawing two passersby.

Vijay couldn't escape as the street was just five feet wide and crowded. But he used sleight of hand to swallow the gold chain. He was eventually caught by members of the public and was beaten black and blue.

KR Market police inspector B G Kumaraswamy asked his officers to take Vijay to a hospital as he was badly injured in the public beatings. Things took a different turn after an X-ray showed a metal object inside his body. But nobody was sure that he had swallowed the gold. Hema thought the chain had fallen somewhere during the scuffle.

Vijay initially argued with the doctors and the police, and claimed that the metal object was a "bone" that he had swallowed while eating mutton biryani.

But police didn't believe him and promised to release him immediately if he told the truth. Vijay then told them that he had swallowed the chain after it fell down because he didn't want the public or the police to find it and return to the victim.

Doctors gave him Enema, a syrup used to treat constipation, and bananas. The chain eventually came out through faeces.

Based on Vijay's information, police arrested his accomplice named Sanjay, 25. A third accomplice is absconding.

Vijay has been listed as a rowdy-sheeter at the JJ Nagar police station.