Bhubaneswar: City police on Tuesday arrested three persons, including a couple, for their alleged involvement in multiple snatching cases carried out in an unusual and calculated ploy to evade suspicion.According to police, accused husband Rakesh Rout (35) deployed his wife Swetalina Behera (27) as a shield, using her presence to disguise his movements and confuse the investigators.Commissioner of police S Dev Datta Singh explained that Rout would drop Behera at a distance before scouting for targets. After committing the snatching, he would return to pick her up, riding away casually with her as a pillion to blend into traffic and confuse CCTV tracking. The couple’s intent was to create investigative hurdles, ensuring Rout remained unidentified in the footage.“Behera actively supported her husband, helping him dispose of stolen jewellery and even mortgaging it in banks to secure loans,” the police commissioner said. Police also arrested Golekh Chandra Sathua (65), a receiver linked to the couple.Investigations revealed the couple’s involvement in seven snatching cases in Chandrasekharpur, two in Nayapalli, and one in Infocity between Nov 2025 and March 2026.Rout’s criminal history dates back to 2010, with thefts continuing until 2015 before he briefly reformed, opening a paan shop and marrying Behera in 2016. He later worked as a driver but returned to crime in late 2025, this time with his wife by his side.Police unmasked the couple while probing the snatching of a gold chain from an elderly woman outside a jewellery store in Niladri Vihar area here on Dec 24, 2025. CCTV footage initially baffled investigators as Rout seemed to vanish, but hours of close review revealed his deceptive method.“After arresting the couple in this case, we found their involvement in several other offences in different parts of the city in the last three to four months. Their arrest is expected to curb snatching incidents in Chandrasekharpur and its nearby areas,” Singh said.According to police officials, eight stolen gold chains have been recovered from the accused, four of which were mortgaged in a nationalised bank. Genuine claimants have been identified, and their jewellery returned.
