Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Burglary: police team in Chennai

Thiruvananthapuram: A city police team is in Chennai in a bid to trace the gang of professional burglars believed to be responsible for the daring robbery at a house in Pettah early on Sunday.

The six-member gang had broken into the house by removing a window sill. They gagged the house owner’s wife, who was alone and sleeping in her bedroom, and took away cash, gold ornaments and a Mercedes-Benz car at knifepoint.

Investigators said the burglars had conducted a religious rite in a nearby coconut grove before breaking into the house, leading the police to believe that the burglars hailed from a “notorious colony of lawbreakers” near Ramji Nagar in Tiruchirapalli district in Tamil Nadu.

The stolen car was found abandoned in Kochi on Sunday. Investigators believe that burglars could have taken a train to Chennai from Kochi the same day.

Their suspicion has been strengthened following a Tamil Nadu police report that a six-member gang, matching the description of those responsible for the robbery in Pettah, had broken into the house of a Malayali businessman at Perungulathur, near Tambaram, in Chennai and took away gold ornaments and cash. The gang fled in his car, which the police later found abandoned near Vadapalani.

The victim, one Mathew, and his wife, Gracy, have reported a loss of Rs.12 lakh to the Chennai police. The gang, all brandishing knives, had broken into the house through a window in the rear of the house.

Investigators said the method of operation of the gang responsible for the burglary in Chennai was strikingly similar to that of those who burgled the house in Pettah.

The gang members, though menacing in appearance, were polite to their victims. They spoke to the family members in broken English and Hindi. The thieves fled in the car owned by the house owner. One of the gang members had entered the house by removing a window sill. Once inside, he opened the doors for the others to enter. The same method was used in Pettah. The police said Mr. Mathew’s 10-month-old granddaughter, Hanina, was being tended by their domestic help, Irudhaya Mary, when the robbers broke into the house. The child cried when one of the robbers took her gold chain. He immediately pacified the child and returned the ornament. The gang gagged the occupants of the house, tied them to their beds and warned them not to inform the police.

A senior official here said the city police were in touch with their counterparts in Chennai and a breakthrough in the case was expected soon.

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