Jewellery weighing more than 75 sovereigns was stolen from a house in Kubera Nagar at Madipakkam, while the residents were asleep. The burglary came to light on Tuesday morning.
According to the Madipakkam police, Sundari (51) and her daughter Ranjani (25) live in an independent house on Kubera Nagar 12th Street (Extension). Sundari's husband, a businessman, died some years ago and another daughter, Surya, is married and resides in Bangalore.
Ranjani, employed with a tour operator firm in Chennai, had got engaged recently and the marriage is scheduled to take place shortly. The woman and her daughter had recently brought home the jewellery, which was lying in a bank safety locker for long.
They kept the jewellery in an almirah on the ground floor of the house. On Monday night, Sundari and her daughter slept on the first floor.
The main gate of the house was not locked, police said, adding that even the grille gate and the wooden door of the house were simply latched.
The two women heard some noise around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, switched on the lights and came to the ground floor.
After assuring themselves that everything was intact, they returned to bed. However, at 7.30 a.m., they noticed the doors and the almirah broken open and the jewellery missing.
On information, police personnel from the Madipakkam station and the special crime team of the St. Thomas Mount police district visited the spot.
Police suspect that the crime would have been committed by a lone culprit. They said the noise heard by the women past midnight was caused by pieces of concrete that fell from the parapet wall of the terrace. The pieces fell on the sunshade of a window on the first floor.
The house, located at the end of Kubera Nagar, is surrounded only by a few other houses and apartments and the spot presents a desolate picture.
