City policeman cops out of work, lands in jail

Arrested for chain-snatching in Mangaluru

A police constable who went missing from the city has been arrested by the Mangaluru police in connection with a chain-snatching case and is in jail.

According to police, Sandesh a constable at the Mahalakshmi Layout station, went missing in April.

After her attempts to search Sandesh didn’t yield any results, his wife Pavitra, a government employee, went to the station to find out if he was regular for duty. She was told that Sandesh was not coming for work. The police failed to trace him as his mobile phone was switched off.

Pavitra then filed a missing complaint with the Rajagopalanagar police on May 5. The complaint stated that Sandesh had gone missing on April 11.

A few days ago, Pavitra got a call from a mobile phone number and the person on the phone told her not to think about her husband and forget him. She went to the police and told them about the call. The police started tracking the number and it was found that the call was made from the Mangaluru jail. It was found that he was arrested by the Barke police in a chain-snatching case.

When Deccan Herald contacted the Mangaluru police, they said that, on April 12, Sandesh went to the house of Malini, 57. On the pretext of asking for water, he snatched her gold chain and fled. The victim fell down and sustained a fracture in the leg. Malini lodged a complaint with the Barke police. On April 14, he was arrested from the KSRTC bus stand in Mangaluru.

A senior police officer in Mangaluru, said, “He claimed that he was a labourer from Chamarajanagar district and had committed petty theft for a living. He was remanded in judicial custody.”

“After a few days, we received information from our counterparts in Bengaluru. We cross-checked and found that he was a police constable.

“When asked why he committed the crime, he said that he was depressed as he was deep in debt.  He came to Mangaluru to commit suicide, but ended up committing the crime,” the officer said.