Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Dec 5: In a major breakthrough, the Mangaluru City police have arrested a notorious inter-state offender involved in a string of chain-snatching and vehicle theft cases across coastal Karnataka.
The accused, who targeted elderly citizens and lone women using stolen two-wheelers, had been operating across several districts while frequently moving locations to evade detection.
The arrest is linked to an incident on November 21, 2025, when an 83-year-old woman standing in the courtyard of her house at Kadri Battagudde was confronted by a man who arrived on a two-wheeler, snatched her gold chain and fled.
A robbery case was registered at Mangaluru East police station and a dedicated investigation team was formed.
Acting on specific intelligence, the special team conducted a vehicle-check operation near Kadri Jogi Mutt on December 4, 2025. During the drive, police intercepted a suspicious motorcycle bearing registration number KA19 HC 6946. Verification revealed that the two-wheeler had been stolen from Surathkal police station limits.
Interrogation of the rider indicated that he had been using stolen two-wheelers to identify vulnerable victims, particularly elderly individuals and lone women, before committing chain-snatching offences. He was produced before court on December 5 and remanded to three days of police custody for further investigation.
The arrested accused has been identified as Adit Gopan, also known as Muttu Krishna, aged 32, son of Gopan Nair, residing at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Police investigations have linked him to multiple previous crimes. These include the snatching of a gold chain weighing 1.5 sovereigns from an elderly woman at Kadri Battagudde on November 21; threatening a lone woman at knifepoint at Kotekeri in Moolki on September 27 and robbing a gold chain weighing 2 sovereigns; and several two-wheeler thefts in the jurisdictions of Byndoor, Kundapura, Chokkabettu in Surathkal, and Agarmelu in Surathkal.
From the accused, the police have recovered four stolen two-wheelers and gold jewellery, including chains taken during the robberies, together valued at Rs 5 lac.
Investigators have further revealed that the accused has a long criminal history. He had earlier been involved in four cases of house break-ins and gold theft in Tamil Nadu and had served a term in Nagercoil Jail. After his release, he travelled extensively across India by train, targeting railway station areas to steal two-wheelers, using them to commit snatchings and immediately fleeing to another location by train to avoid being tracked.
Police note that his constant movement made the investigation particularly challenging, but the coordinated efforts of the special team ensured his swift arrest.
The operation was carried out by inspector Ananth Padmanabha of Mangaluru East police station, along with the officers and staff of Kadri police station, who together succeeded in cracking the case and linking several pending thefts to the accused.
According to the Mangaluru City police commissionerate, a total of 72 two-wheelers have been reported stolen in the city in 2025 so far. Of these, 57 have been recovered while 15 remain untraced, putting the city’s recovery rate at 79%.