Basaveshwaranagar police have arrested a producer of short films who had resorted to snatching gold chains from sleeping women in the city to finance his projects. He had escaped from a police station after diverting their attention and was hiding in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh for the last two weeks. 
 

The culprit has been identified as Prathap alias Rangu, (36) a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout who lives with his wife and two sons. Police said he was involved in about eight cases of chain snatching in the city. 
A senior police officer said Prathap was brought to the police station two weeks ago for interrogation but he diverted the attention of the policemen saying that he wanted to attend nature's call and fled.

Police who have been on the lookout for him nabbed him on Saturday, when he came to MS Building near KR Circle to meet a friend. Prathap would walk around late at night and snatch gold chains from woman who were sleeping outside their houses or close to the door. He would identify such houses in advance. He would then sell the stolen chains to pawnbrokers and invest the money in making short films. The double entendre films would be uploaded on YouTube and also sold to some local TV channels.

(This was first published in The New Indian Express)