KALYAN: Police were finally able to recover an 11g gold chain from a chain snatcher after making him eat eight dozen bananas. The man had swallowed the chain after stealing it from a doctor on board a long-distance train.

Kalyan GRP informed Dr Sheetal Kamble, currently in Akola district, about the recovery of her chain on Thursday from the accused Damu Gupta (28).

Police said on December 22, Bandra resident Kamble was travelling in the S7 compartment of Vidarbha Express when Gupta snatched the chain she was wearing and escaped. Alarmed by her cries for help, fellow passengers chased Gupta and caught him from S8. “Gupta vehemently claimed he was innocent and passengers too could not find any chain on him. But a traveler said he had noticed Gupta swallowing something and assumed it must have been the chain,” police said.

“We initially conducted a regular X-ray but it didn’t detect anything. So on Wednesday, we conducted an ultrasound which revealed the chain in Gupta’s abdomen,” said Sampat Nirmal, senior inspector, Kalyan GRP . From Wednesday afternoon, the accused was fed bananas on the doctor’s advice, as the fruit is a natural laxative.

Police said after the chain’s recovery, the accused confessed that he had committed similar offences in his village in Uttar Pradesh accused for which he served jail terms. But it was the first time he had committed the crime in the city, where he arrived two days before the incident. Gupta claimed he was scared of being beaten up by the mob so he swallowed the chain.

