Three men on a motorcycle had snatched a purse containing Rs 60,000 from a woman waiting for an app cab at Maniktala last Sunday, she had alleged in her police complaint.

The three were arrested on Thursday night after cops established their identity by scanning multiple CCTV footage that showed the vehicle’s make and model.

Mohammad Jasim, 24, of Dakshindhari in Lake Town who was riding the two-wheeler and Mohammad Sukur, 34, and Mohammad Sonu, both from the Lake Town area, who were on the pillion have been remanded in police custody for seven days.

The police have recovered Rs 57,000 and the woman’s mobile phone from them, an officer of Maniktala police station, where the woman had lodged the complaint, said.

None of the grabs had a clear picture of the vehicle’s number plate, a part of which was broken, but the model and make was identified as Apache RTR 180 of TVS, the officer said. “We contacted all the dealers in Calcutta who sell this model and started matching the number plates with the digits available in the grabs.”

One of the arrested was clearly visible in one of the footage and none of the three had helmets, the police said.

“We tracked him down using technology and found the tower location of his phone on Sunday at the spot where the purse had been snatched. We went through his call detail record and zeroed in on the other two,” the officer said.

The women and two others who work at a call centre had visited a dhaba in Maniktala before booking an app cab. One of them, a resident of Rajarhat, had a purse with Rs 60,000, the police said.

In her complaint, she had said three men on a motorcycle had snatched her purse and phone and sped away around 2.20am before they could raise the alarm.

One of the three arrested, who works at a leather factory, had apparently instigated the others to steal the purse so that they could spend the night in the city’s red-light district, the police said.

The three have apparently told cops that they had parked the bike and hired an app cab to go to Sovabazar.

Another runs a mobile shop owned by his father and drives app cabs occasionally while the third is engaged in a factory, the police said.