Mobile snatching: College student, dropout held

After an hour-long midnight search aided by technical teams in Meenambakkam, the city police caught a college student who was involved in several phone snatching incidents, on Sunday. They also seized 15 stolen mobile phones and  a sickle hidden under his  two-wheeler’s seat.

The police teams started the search after an emergency call from a person who was robbed by the youth at knife point on GST Road. The accused was identified as M Harish (19), a second year B Com student in a private college in Meenambakkam. 

The victim remembered the registration number of the suspect’s vehicle and informed it to the police. Compounding his troubles, Harish had also forgotten to switch off the victim’s mobile phone.

The city police’s technical team tracked the real time location of the phone, which helped it to zero in on the suspect near the Tirusulam. “Harish was zigzagging on his two-wheeler in Meenambakkam and Pallavaram areas. Police teams chased and finally cornered him at Trisoolam,” police sources said. 

It is suspected that Harish, a resident of Virugambakkam, was under influence of narcotics when he was caught. He started snatching mobile phones for money, reportedly to buy drugs. 

He was also using a stolen bike, the police sources said. Based on his confession, police arrested his associate R Akash (20), an engineering college dropout residing in Kovur, on Monday morning. Police also arrested two minor boys from Saligramam who used to arrange buyers for the mobile phones snatched by Harish and Akash.