Couple in Warangal turn chain-snatchers to buy earthmover

WARANGAL: A husband and wife team of chain-snatchers, on a mission to collect enough gold to buy an earthmover to ensure a steady income from its rentals, were nabbed by police here on Monday. Police recovered 3 kg and 10 grams of gold jewellery and Rs 82 lakh cash from the couple, Warangal police commissioner G Sudheer Babu said. The two were identified as Banoth Ravi and Erram Rajeswari.
Apparently inspired by a spate of crime-related shows on TV, the couple took to chain-snatching to make their dream come true. According to police, it was 25-year-old Rajeswari, who would do recce in lanes and by-lanes of Warangal to identify spots where women would walk alone and tell her husband Ravi of suitable places and time to strike.
Rajeswari, a pharmacy graduate herself from Talla Padmavathi College of Pharmacy, was wooed by Ravi while they lived in Khammam. Their parents, employed in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited at Illendu, were opposed to their marriage. Later, Rajeswari parents were shifted to Bhupalapally mines of SCCL and she joined in the pharmacy college there. Raju, according to the police, followed his lady love and proposed to her. However, as their parents opposed to the idea, the duo decided to elope and Rajeswari suggested that they rent a small house near her college in Warangal.
This was in 2013. For the next two years, Rajeswari would search for ideal locations for her husband to strike following which Ravi would snatch gold chains from women on the street while riding his motorcycle.
Until Monday, when the couple was stopped at a routine police check on Hunter Road here in the city, the duo had a smooth run. The police said that they were on their way to Hyderabad to sell the jewellery to raise money for their plans to buy an earthmover, which they wanted to rent to others for a steady income.
Upon questioning, Ravi and his wife revealed that they were into chain-snatching since 2013. The couple was involved in as many as 77 chain-snatching cases in Warangal. They were also involved in 12 chain-snatching incidents in Khammam and three in Karimnagar district, the police said.