Betting addiction leads pharma employee to crime: Railway police arrest chain snatcher

Hyderabad: Secunderabad Railway Police, along with Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff, have apprehended a notorious property offender who committed two snatching cases within the limits of RPS Secunderabad.

The accused has been identified as Koruprolu Lavaraju (23 years), Junior Chemist in a pharmaceutical company at Khazipally, hailing from Kakinada District of Andhra Pradesh State. 

According to the Secunderabad Railway Police, the accused, a native of Andhra Pradesh, shifted to Hyderabad two years ago and worked at Hetero Lab Ltd., Khazipally, as a Junior Chemist with a salary of Rs 23,000.

“He developed habits of consuming alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and playing betting games. He used to play online betting through the website “Wolf 777” on games such as “Amar, Akbar, Anthony” and online cricket. The money he earned from his job is spent on drinking alcohol and playing betting games. As the money was not sufficient for his lavish livelihood, he decided to earn money easily by any means,” said Secunderabad Railway Police.

While travelling to his native place, upon arriving at Secunderabad Railway Station, he observed a heavy public rush there. He felt that committing thefts at Secunderabad Railway Station and escaping would be easy and therefore, he decided to commit thefts there. Accordingly, he committed a snatching offence on the Simhapuri Express train in February and another on the Gowthami Express train in August this year. 

While the efforts are in progress, on Monday at about 7 AM, the accused on the outer side of Secunderabad Railway Station was found in a suspicious manner and on interrogation, he admitted his guilt in committing the following two cases.

Investigation revealed that out of the three gold chains got from the offences, he sold two to unknown persons and spent the earnings on betting. The remaining gold chain was pledged at Muthoot Fincorp, Suraram branch, Hyderabad, and the amount received was also spent on betting. Further, based on his confession, police have seized 77 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs. 7,70,000.