Chennai: Hours after his arrest along with his accomplice at the Chennai airport, one of the two North Indian burglars involved in chain snatching spree in the city by operating on 'Fly-in and Fly-out' model, was shot dead in an encounter with the police in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Reports said the suspect, Jaffer tried to flee after trying to attack a police party with his hidden pistol when they went to recover the stolen jewelleries from his hide out near Taramani MRTS Railway station, when the cops opened fire, killing him on the spot.
At least two policemen were said to be injured in the attack by the burglar, whose body was shifted to Government Royapettah Hospital for post mortem, reports said.
Reports confirming the incident said Inspector Mohammed Buhari, who was part of the Special team that went to recover the stolen jewels, opened fire in self-defence after the burglar attacked the cops in an attempt to flee from the scene.
Senior police officials visited the spot and held preliminary inquiries about the encounter.
Jaffer was said to be the kingpin in these incidents as he used to snatch chains from young women and elderly women by travelling in the pillion, targetting them in the early hours.
Reports said he was involved in close to 50 cases across the country, including a case in Mumbai in 2021.
Police said within three hours after their involvement in at least eight chain snatching incidents in a short span of just an hour yesterday, the cops acted swiftly, analysed the CCTV footages and nabbed them at the airport when they tried to board a flight to Hyderabad and Mumbai en route to their native Uttar Pradesh.
The duo were identified as Jaffer Gulam Hussain Rani and Mesam Rani, whose modus operandi is to land in the city by air, indulge in a series of chain snatchings at particular areas and fly out within hours of committing the crime.
Investigations revealed that the duo had involved in chain snatching incidents in posh areas like Adyar, Neelangarai, ECR, Tiruvanmiyur and other localities.
Special teams formed to nab the culprits in the wake of recent spurt in chain snatching incidents especially in areas coming under Adyar Police Zone, traced the mobile number linked to one of them, tracked their movements using the mobile towers, and found they were heading to the airport.
The police officials alerted the airport staffs after ascertaining that the duo had sought tickets to travel to Hyderabad and Mumbai urgently at the last minute.
However, one of them could not get the ticket for the Mumbai flight as his identity proof did not match, an official release said.
When one of them came to the ariline counter to get his boarding pass for the Hyderabad flight, the staff grew suspicious, alerted the Airport police, leading to his arrest.
Similarly another accused was arrested at the another airline counter when he was waiting to get a boarding pass to take a flight to Mumbai.
After the Hyderabad-bound accused, boarded the flight, the police with the help of Airport authorities stopped the flight from taking off, went inside the aircraft and arrested him.
During questioning, they confessed to their involvement in several chain snatching incidents, using a stolen motorbike, and seized gold chains worth several lakhs of rupees from them.
Based on the statements given by them, the third accused in the incidents, was arrested by another police team at Ongole Railway Station when they arrived by the Pinakani Express from Chennai to flee from being nabbed by the police.
The suspects are said to be part of the dreaded Irani gang which is notorious for a spate of robberies, particularly chain snatchings, across the country.
