Hyderabad, March 31: Chain-snatchers are generally believed to be petty criminals who are locals and prey on aged women who can't fight back. Now, meet Hemant Gupta, 30, a chain-snatcher from Delhi who regularly took flights to Hyderabad to target women here.

Hemant was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday when he was getting ready to board a flight back to Delhi.  Surat Woman Duped Of Rs 1.76 Lakh By Online Fraudsters While She Was Trying To Get Refund For Undelivered Book From E-Commerce Website

According to a report in Times of India, he was nabbed with a stolen mangalsutra worth thousands of rupees on the basis of an alert by Rachkonda police officials. According to the officials, Hemant had flown down to Hyderabad at least six times in the past few months and stolen jewellery worth thousands each time.

On Tuesday evening, Gupta had tried to snatch the mangalsutra of T Kamala, 55, a housewife from Anupama Nagar in Saroornagar while she was travelling on a bike with her husband, Narsimha Reddy, 65, at Abdullapurmet. The failed attempt led to the couple falling off the bike. Fraud in Karnataka: 32-Year-Old Man Duped of Rs 28 Lakh in Udupi Over Promise of Modelling Assignments

Even as Reddy got up and started running after the robber, Hemant took a U-turn and rode past Reddy in the wrong direction.

"Hemant snatched the four tola gold necklace from the injured woman lying on the road and sped away on the highway," said a police official.

Based on a complaint of the victim, Abdullapurmet police started verifying CCTV footage. They identified the vehicle registration details of Hemant's bike and realised that he had bought it from an e-classifieds portal after reaching Hyderabad. The cops got Hemant's phone number from the portal and traced his phone to the airport.

Alerted by Abdullapurment cops, the airport police outpost team along with airport security personnel, searched the passenger details of all the flights and arrested Hemant at 5.45 am. He was later handed over to Abdullapurmet police officials.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 31, 2022 04:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).