In a daring incident, an unidentified person robbed 16 sovereigns of gold chain from an aged woman passenger in an air-conditioned coach of Chennai-bound Kanyakumari Express as she was boarding the train at Sattur Railway station on Wednesday night.
The victim, Pon Muniswari’s (61) alarm for help could not alert people inside the AC coach as the glass door remained closed. The robber first attempted to snatch the gold chain from behind as the woman followed her husband, Vallimuthu (71), into the coach.
However, since the chain was fastened with a safety pin with her dress, the chain did not come out. The irked robber then pulled the woman down and removed it around her neck, even as the train started chugging out of the platform after the brief halt.
The husband had gone into the coach looking for their berths. The robber, after taking the gold chain, swiftly jumped out of the coach to the opposite side of the platform as the train slowed down.
The woman had sustained injuries on her head and had fallen on the floor near the door. Her husband who came in search of her alerted the fellow passengers. Though the train was stopped on pulling of emergency alarm chain, the robber could not be traced as he had disappeared under the cover of darkness. She was given first-aid at Virudhunagar railway station and she continued her journey to Chennai.
The couple, who live in Tiruvotriyur, had come to their home town in Nagalapuram Pudur in Thoothukudi district. Vallimuthu runs a grocery shop in Chennai, the police said.
Thoothukudi Railway police have registered a case of robbery.
