Kannur: Thalassery police here on Thursday arrested a soldier for snatching an elderly woman's chain of 50 grams. The accused is Pinarayi native Kunjilaveetil Sarath (35), a havildar in the Indian Army.

As per the complaint, the accused snatched the chain of the elderly woman when she was heading to Thiruvangad temple on Wednesday. She told police that the accused followed her and snatched her chain. She added that the man fled from the scene in a vehicle. Police took him into custody from his house in Pinarayi.

Manorama News reported that Sarath decided to steal the jewellery after he suffered a huge loss in online stock trading. He had sold the stolen chain at a jewellery shop. Police traced him after examining the CCTV visuals of the places close to the crime scene and jewellery shops in the town. Sarath who returned home from Bihar reportedly committed the crime to meet the loss from online trading.