Six cases of robbery by masked men were reported in a span of two hours late Tuesday night and early hours of Wednesday in the city.
As complaints poured in one after the other from as many as four police station limits, including Tallakulam and Vilakkuthoon, the baffled city police came in for severe criticism as there was no clue about the suspects even after many victims narrated their tales.
The surveillance cameras fixed in as many as 3000 locations and night patrol vigil did not help in fixing the identity, according to inquiries conducted by the investigators.
The modus operandi of the robbers was to daringly attack the public who moved on the roads at odd hours and forcibly take away whatever was with them, before vanishing from the scene of crime.
Velmurugan, who was returning home from work in KK Nagar at 1.30 a.m., was intercepted by the robbers at G.R. Nagar in Tallakulam police station limits. Sensing trouble, the victim did not retaliate when the gang of six persons pushed him from his two-wheeler.
Within a few minutes, he was asked to part with valuables. The gang fled the scene after collecting them. Shocked at the incident, he lodged a complaint with Tallakulam police on Wednesday that he lost his mobile phone and ₹2500.
It was not an isolated incident.
A senior police officer said that the robbers had brandished knives and threatened the public at Crime Branch bus stop, near Periyar bus stand, in front of MADITSSIA Hall, near PTR Bridge and near A.V. Bridge on the Anna statue side.
In all the cases, the victims were not harmed but were either threatened or pushed down by the robbers, who had covered their faces with handkerchiefs. The incidents happened between 1.45 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., he added.
Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav pulled up officers on night rounds and sought explanation for the “lapses”.
Had there been coordination among the night patrolling officers, such incidents could have been prevented, it is felt.
When some of the victims had rushed to police stations, they were told to come after 10 a.m.
Likewise, the police responded to the call made to 100 only after 30 minutes, a relative of the victim at the PTR Bridge, who lost his mobile phone, said.
The confessions from the victims suggested that the same gang of six may have committed the crimes as the modus operandi was more or less similar in each case. The gang members were in an inebriated condition and the number plates on the two bikes used by them were missing. Only two among them had helmets.
