Bravehearts! Vasai's kabbadi boys play cop, nab chain-snatcher

A group of kabaddi enthusiasts from Vasai swooped down on a robber, who was trying to flee after assaulting and robbing a senior citizen of his gold chain. The criminal is known to target senior citizens in the area

The Kabaddi players who helped nab the accused. PICS/Hanif Patel

A group of kabaddi enthusiasts from Vasai swooped down on a robber, who was trying to flee after assaulting and robbing a senior citizen of his gold chain on Thursday night. The local kabaddi players later handed over the accused to the Manikpur police station.

According to the police, the incident took place when Jaya Muttu Shetty (64), a resident of Diwanman, Vasai (West), was on his way to the Sai Baba temple in the area. Just before he could reach the temple, two people came towards him. One of them deliberately fell on Shetty and accused the senior citizen of pushing him.

Jaya Muttu Shetty (centre), who was attacked by two robbers on Thursday night and Sudama Vhanmane (right), who claims to have been robbed by the accused in July this year

“They started arguing with me and even claimed they had weapons and threatened to attack me. Within a few seconds, an autorickshaw arrived at the spot. This is when both of them held me by the collar, snatched my gold chain and escaped in the auto. I tried running after the auto,” Shetty said.

Even as he was giving the duo a tough chase, one of the robbers got down a few metres away and ran in a different direction. Shetty began shouting for help, alerting the local Kabaddi players, who were practising in a nearby garden.

The chain-snatcher

Since few of them knew Shetty through his son, they ran to nab the robber, who had got down from the auto. After chasing the robber for a few minutes, they finally caught hold of him.

Shetty, who was still running after the auto, was then told that the other robber had been caught with the chain. Before the robber was taken to the police station, locals had gathered at the spot. From among the crowd, 70-year-old Sudama Vhanmane claimed that the nabbed robber resembled a person, who had attacked her in July.

The robber, identified as Abdul Rauf Zabir Hussain Ansari, has been arrested by the Manikpur police station. Ansari, 42, who is a resident of Kalyan Road, Bhiwandi, has been booked under Sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt when committing robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. “Ansari will be produced in court on Friday. Two of his friends have been shown as wanted accused in the case,” said an officer from the Manikpur police station.

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