An engineering student and two higher secondary school students were among a four-member gang arrested by the city police in connection with chain-snatching incidents in the city.
They were involved in three chain-snatching cases and had stolen 36 sovereigns of gold in Vilakkuthoon and South Gate police station limits.
Among the arrested are T. Palanikumar (19) and G. Ashok (19) both are students of Plus One and Plus Two respectively in a city school, S. Ramkumar (21), a third-year engineering student and S. Murugan (21).
All of them hailed from Keeraithurai.
Assistant Commissioner of Police V. Malaichamy said the police have seized 30 sovereigns of gold, two motorcycles used for the crime and a knife.
The youth had snatched gold for leading a lavish life. They were also involved in eight futile attempts of chain-snatching, he added.
They were remanded in judicial custody. The district and city police had arrested four other students for chain snatching in the recent past.
Cash rewards
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Sanjay Mathur handed over cash rewards to city residents who had helped the police in detecting crime and for honestly returning lost properties.
He appreciated the courage of S. Prabhavathi who had courageously fought with a chain-snatcher despite the culprit brandishing a knife.
An autorickshaw driver, P. Balasubramanian, had returned Rs. 1 lakh worth digital cameras absent-mindedly left by north Indian scientists in his vehicle.
Another person, K. Mariappan, had handed over to the police Rs. 15,630 which was left on his motorcycle a couple of days back.
A police constable, Jayakumar, was rewarded for helping to identify two women who snatched gold chains at Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.
He identified the culprits through the closed circuit television video footage.
