KOCHI: On working days, he is a carpenter, but on holidays, he hits the streets as a chain snatcher. The Kochi police came across his strange ways after arresting Ram Vinoj Kumar, a Bihar native who lives near Kalamassery, for snatching a woman’s chain near Thammanam on Monday.
Officers said Ram Vinoj, a carpenter, had been living in Kalamassery area for the past 16 years. “Despite working as a carpenter for many years, his main hobby was chain-snatching, especially on public holidays,” said Palarivattom SHO Sanal S. “He had also snatched the chain of an elderly woman at Ambalamugal while she was returning from a temple on Vishu day. Though he is yet to confess to other crimes that he had committed, most of his robberies were done on public holidays.”
Ram Vinoj allegedly chose the public holidays to avoid the rush on the street. “Since there was a higher chance of getting caught by the public on normal days, he chose the holidays to execute his plans. We have already identified this modus operandi in incidents reported in other parts of the district,” the officer added.
The police cracked the Thammanam snatching case and arrested Ram within 14 hours. The officer explained that because the CCTV footage was of poor quality, it was difficult for the investigation team to identify his face and the registration number of the motorcycle he used for the crime.
However, it was the T-shirt he wore while snatching the chain on Monday helped the police. “The T-shirt had long stripes. We were able to track his movement from visuals from 36 other CCTV cameras, but we got stuck in tracking his movement from Kalamassery HMT junction. But with the help of local people, we got some hints. Based on those, we traced the Ram to his residence,” the officer said.