A day after Chennai was rocked by a chain snatching spree by bike-borne robbers in the posh Besant Nagar and Adyar, police busted a three-member gang from north India and shot dead 28-year-old mastermind, Jaffar Ghulam Hussain of Uttar Pradesh, in the wee hours near Taramani in the city on Wednesday.

Police said the mastermind Jaffar was shot dead when he attempted to flee by opening fire at the special team, which took him to recover the stolen jewellery and weapons he had hidden near Taramani Railway Station. In self-defence, police returned the fire.

Advertisement

In a filmy-style operation, the police nabbed Jaffar and his accomplice Suraj alias Marsingh Amjat, also from Uttar Pradesh, at the Chennai Airport, foiling their plans to leave by air undetected to Hyderabad. While one of them was de-planed from a flight by halting its take-off, another was intercepted at the entrance of the airport, police said. The third suspect, travelling by Pinakini Express was arrested at Nellore.

Following the uproar over spate of chain-snatching incidents in at least six locations in Adyar-Besant Nagar region on Tuesday morning, targeting women and morning walkers, the Greater Chennai Police conducted intensive checks and thorough search. Over 100 police personnel were deployed to scrutinise the CCTV footage collected from several locations.

It was ascertained that the suspects were heading towards the airport after abandoning the two-wheeler. The police alerted the airport authorities, including the Air Traffic Control (ATC). On reaching the airport, they learnt that one of the suspects had boarded a Hyderabad-bound flight. A police team stepped into the aircraft and arrested him. The other one was nabbed at the entrance.

According to police, the encounter took place when Jaffar was escorted to recover the jewels after preliminary questioning. He drew a gun from the two-wheeler abandoned by him and opened fire at the police personnel and the fire was returned in self defence.

It was found that Jaffar had more than 50 criminal cases registered against him in Mumbai. He and his accomplices have carried out chain snatching by getting a two-wheeler through a local contact.

This is the fourth encounter in Chennai in the last nine months. The other three are the elimination of Thiruvengadam, Kakkathoppu Balaji Seesing Raja, all arrested in the murder of late BSP state president K Armstrong.