Startup fundraising gone criminal: Bengaluru duo go on chain-snatching spree to fund app
Police in Bengaluru arrested two men on Saturday suspected of being involved in 29 incidents of chain- snatching between March and June 2017, spread across 17 police station limits. A total of 29 gold chains, with a total weight of 1.2 kg, worth Rs 35 lakh have been recovered.
“A special team formed by DCP South nabbed the suspects based on a CCTV footage of one of the chain snatching incidents,” Praveen Sood, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner told reporters, according to multiple media reports.
After their arrest, police have found out that they had started their chain-snatching spree with the aim of raising money (to the tune of Rs 2 lakh) to build an app.
The duo has been identified as MN Jabiuddin alias Tabrez (30) and G Arun Kumar (36), residents of HBR Layout and Mahalakshmi Layout respectively.
According to police, the duo had met while they were inmates at the Parappana Agrahara central prison and came up with the idea of the app-which would act as a directory for top schools in the city. After they were released on bail, they started out with their plan of raising money by chain-snatching and stole a bike from Malleshwaram.
"Both were involved in other cases and were lodged in Central prisons in Parappana Agrahara, where they met. They decided to come up with a mobile application called ‘School app’ which would provide details about schools and colleges so that parents could identify institutions to admit their children. After coming out of jail, they contacted an application developer, who said the project required Rs 2 lakhs," a police officer told The New Indian Express.
However, they soon abandoned the idea of building the app realising that stealing was more lucrative, police said.
“As chain-snatching became lucrative, the focus shifted from app development to crime. As they were habitual offenders, the police found them on the database and eventually arrested the two,” an officer told Bangalore Mirror.