In a midnight robbery, a 60-year-old woman, K. Ponnuthai, lost her five- sovereign chain to three robbers in an extension residential area near Palanganatham on Thursday.
Police said that Ponnuthai heard someone knocking the door at her home in V.K.P. Nagar Extension in S.S. Colony police station limits at around 12.15 a.m. When she opened the door, two persons pounced on her. Before she could raise an alarm, one of them held her while another snatched her chain.
While her daughter was away, two of her young grandchildren were with Ponnuthai when the crime took place. The police said that two more persons were seen along with the fleeing culprits.
All of them were sporting shirts and half-trousers. The police suspect that the culprits would have known that the woman was alone. In a similar incident reported in Raghavendra Nagar Extension on April 16, also in S.S. Colony police limits, three persons broke open the house of one Govindaraj and decamped with five sovereigns of gold when the family members were asleep.
In both the incidents, the robbers had struck at houses in extension areas.
They had sported half trousers. The most striking similarity is that two persons had waited outside the house, either to attack the residents if they offered resistance or to keep a watch on the movement of people on the road, the police said. In the Raghavendra Nagar incident that occurred at around 2 p.m., when Govindaraj had come out of his house to chase the culprits, the two persons waiting outside started attacking him with bricks.
Boy commits suicide
A 17-year-old boy, G. Kumaresan, committed suicide by hanging at his residence in Manjanakkara Street on Wednesday night. Police said that his foster parents, who had gone out of station, found him dead on their return.
12 held for gambling
The Tideer Nagar police arrested 12 persons for gambling and seized Rs. 23,580 from them at a recreation club in West Perumal Maistry Street on Wednesday night.
Furniture damaged
The Karimedu police have registered a case against seven persons of Gomezpalayam for damaging the furniture at the Corporation office in Arapalayam on Thursday. The police said the gang, led by one Muthukumar, had come with clubs and damaged the furniture. They abused office assistant Selvakumar, saying the officials had cheated the people of Gomezpalayam.
