Anup Kumar Ghosh. Telegraph picture

Calcutta, March 15: A man who took to snatching handbags, cellphones and gold chains from pretty women in Salt Lake after he was jilted in love was arrested today.

Anup Kumar Ghosh, 24, a driver on contract with the PWD, operated in Salt Lake’s Sector I and II.

His victims were mainly good-looking women working in private banks and IT and BPO companies, police said.

“On December 20, 2007, we received a complaint from Kalpana Dutta, an employee of a private bank, that a white Ambassador came speeding and the driver snatched her bag containing her mobile phone while she was walking down the road near Karunamoyee.... Recently, we found that one Anup Ghosh was using the phone,” said Supratim Sarkar, the North 24-Parganas superintendent of police.

A trap was laid and Ghosh’s friends were made to call him to City Centre today, where he was arrested.

During questioning, the Class IX dropout revealed he had been targeting women since July 2006, when his girlfriend dumped him.

“Ghosh had an affair with a woman from Ultadanga and after she refused to marry him, he decided to take revenge on women,” an officer said.

Since profit was not his motive, he did not sell the snatched goods. The police have found 24 bags, 17 phones, a few gold chains and credit cards, a watch and chargers from his rented flat in Dum Dum. However, he spent the stolen money on branded clothes, perfumes and foreign liquor.

“He never snatched a man’s bag,” Sarkar said.

Ghosh moved to Dum Dum from Baduria in North 24-Parganas with two sisters six years ago when their father died. They had lost their mother earlier. The sisters are married.