Two friends chase down chain snatcher

VADODARA: A day after an 18-year-old girl's daring chase helped nab a chain snatcher, two more citizens showed similar gumption on Wednesday night.
Amrish Gandhi, a friend of police (FOP) volunteer and his friend Jimmy Jaiswal, chased down an auto rickshaw driver Ashok Pandey, who had fled after snatching the gold chain of a woman near Karelibaug.
Bhanu Parekh, a resident of VIP Road and her husband Himmatlal were going in Pandey's rickshaw to see a doctor.
Karelibaug police said that stopped his CNG rickshaw near Karelibaug mental hospital and told the couple that his vehicle had run out of gas. Bhanu and her husband got down and tried to find another rickshaw.
When the couple's attention was diverted, Pandey started his auto and snatched Parekh's gold chain worth Rs 54,000. He also pushed them and fled from the spot.
Gandhi and Jaiswal, who were standing nearby, saw the rickshaw driver pushing the victims. They followed Pandey on their bike and intercepted him at Muktanand crossroads. Pandey panicked and threw away the gold chain.
Interestingly, Gandhi and Jaiswal followed Pandey as they thought he had pushed the old couple but they didn't know that he had snatched the chain.
The duo took Pandey back to Karelibaug mental hospital where the incident had occurred but the couple was not there. Later, they handed him to the City police station.
The cops questioned him and got to know that he had snatched the old couple's chain and thrown it away. The police reached Muktananad crossroads and recovered the chain. The cops tracked down the victims as they had lodged a complaint of chain snatching at Karelibaug police station.
On Tuesday evening, an 18-year-old girl Hina Katariya had caught a chain snatcher after a daring chase on Warasiya Road.
Meanwhile, another attempt of chain snatching was also reported on Wednesday evening. Jigisha Patel, a resident of Warasiya, had gone to Kisanwadi to buy vegetables on Monday evening when an unidentified person made a vain bid to snatch her gold chain.