bengaluru a chainsnatcher who allegedly died by suicide after swallowing cyanide on tuesday after seeing a police team closing in on him near hoskote is said to have procured the chemical from a goldsmith in his village in andhra pradeshcops suspect c shankar a resident of b kothakota in chittoor district ap wanted to emerge as a political leader in his village and may have thought he would lose his reputation there if he was caught by police and hence may have died by suicide fearing arrestshankar and his associate chandrashekar were astride a bike and headed towards bengaluru when a team of kr puram police zeroed in on them cops were on the lookout for them in connection with a chainsnatching incident in kr puram unaware of police following him shankar and chandrashekar stopped by anjaneyaswamy temple in pillagumpa and were washing their legs and faces to offer prayers when cops got down from the car seeing them shankar swallowed the cyanide he was carrying and died instantly while chandrashekar was arrestedpolice said shankar purchased the cyanide from a goldsmith who used it to extract and polish gold in b kothakota we need to find out what reason he furnished while procuring it and other details related to his death said d devaraj deputy commissioner of police whitefield division devaraj said shankar was associated with a political party in kothakota and ran a tomato mandi in his village however he was a notorious chainsnatcher since 2006 in bengaluru he initially started snatching chains in girinagar ck achchukattu and other areas and later spread his operations across the city chandrashekar worked for him at the mandi recently shankar convinced chandrashekar to join him in snatching chains in bengaluru to make quick money the duo snatched three chains in kr puram recently devaraj said though shankar had been arrested several times he was off police radar since 2009