A 62-year-old shopkeeper was inflicted cut injuries and relieved of ₹5,000 under Virudhunagar West police station limits on Saturday.
Police said R. Ramesh was closing his shop on East Kadai Street, when a man approached him around 3.15 p.m. and asked for a notebook. As he turned back, the stranger attacked him on the head with a knife, snatched his handbag and ran away.
Later, police searched CCTV footage to nab the thief.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (District Crime Branch) M. Vijayakumar, who holds additional charge of Virudhunagar sub-division, said the accused was unaware that the bag he was carrying had Mr. Ramesh’s mobile phone. “We traced him with the help of cellphone signal even as he was walking on the road and nabbed him.”
The man took to robbery after he lost his job in a spinning mill. The CCTV footage showed that he kept a watch on the movement of customers at the shop for more than an hour. All valuables were recovered from him and he was sent to judicial custody, he added.
