Senior city police officers are investigating whether a policeman attached to the Egmore police station had been instigating criminals to indulge in chain-snatching in the area to bring a bad reputation to his seniors in the station after he had a tiff with a few of them.
“It is true that there was a sudden spurt in the number of chain-snatching incidents in Egmore area. We would certainly like to know if there is any special reason behind the increase in snatching incidents,” a senior police officer said.
A policeman, who is believed to be very good at crime detection, has been allegedly instigating criminals to go around on bikes in Egmore and snatch gold chains from gullible people just to embarrass a senior with whom he had fallen out recently.
The officer was transferred to Egmore station only after a criminal nabbed by his colleagues in the station where he worked earlier confessed that the particular policeman had given him the idea of committing the burglary.
However, a senior officer said that the policeman was on a one-month medical leave and some of his colleagues who had failed to detect crimes had been accusing him of helping criminals.
Just because the policeman knew some criminals does not mean that he was instigating crime.
“He is good at crime detection.
He is familiar with the ways of several criminals,” said the officer.
“However, unless there is something strong to show that he was really asking them to commit crime, it is not fair to blame him,” he added.