A man brutally assaulted and robbed a 39-year-old woman in Ilango Nagar, Kottivakkam, on Tuesday afternoon.
At around 2.30 p.m., on the bustling South Gandhi Street, a man in his mid-twenties approached the victim, S. Valarmathi, who runs a petty shop out of her home. The man asked for a soft drink. When Valarmathi went inside to get a bottle from the refrigerator, he followed her inside and the locked the shop’s door.
He then robbed Valarmathi of her chain and earrings, tearing them off her neck and earlobes. Following this, he ransacked the house and fled with Rs. 70,000 that was in a cash box. He locked the door behind him, leaving an injured Valarmathi lying inside.
Speaking to The Hindu , the victim’s husband Sundaram, a mason, said the man had punched her in the face, and that she had collapsed. “He then sat on her and attacked her repeatedly and snatched her five-sovereign thali chain. He then pulled out the earrings she was wearing damaging her ear lobes,” he added.
“Valarmathi, was bleeding profusely and remained on the floor for close to an hour. She then gained consciousness and called me from her mobile phone,” said the victim’s brother Vadivel. She is now undergoing treatment at a private hospital and is out of danger, he added.
Residents of South Gandhi Street came to know about the attack and robbery only after Vadivel arrived at the shop and rushed Valarmathi to hospital.
Thoraipakkam police are investigating.
