An armed gang raided two houses at Chitrasur near Nellikuppam early Tuesday and took away 10 sovereigns of jewellery and ₹60,000 in cash.
According to police, Santhanalakshmi (40) was living alone in her house after her husband died nine months ago.
She was a farm worker in a private sugarmill in Nellikuppam, while her son and daughter lived in Chennai.
Six masked men barged into Santhanalakshmi’s house around 2 a.m. The accused threatened the victim at knife point and snatched five sovereigns of gold jewellery from her.
The assailants then asked the victim to show them the steel cupboard. When she refused to do so, they kicked her.
Neighbour attacked
While two of the accused kept guard on Santhanalakshmi, four others entered the adjacent house of Arumugam who had kept the main door open.
They broke open the steel cupboard and took away five sovereigns of jewellery and ₹ 60,000 in cash and escaped into the nearby agricultural fields.
Santhanalakshmi alerted the Nellikuppam police.
Fingerprint experts were pressed into service.
Santhanalakshmi is being treated at the Cuddalore Government General Hospital.
The Cuddalore Superintendent of Police. C. Vijaykumar, said that four special teams had been formed to track down and nab the accused.
