A middle-aged woman, in the garb of a devotee, robbed 20 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs. 6,500 from a house on Tuesday.
In a curious turn of events, after locking the resident and her son in the house, the woman fled on a motorcycle by tricking the rider, an acquaintance of the victim
Sources with the Royapettah police identified the victim as Venmathi (32) and said the robbery took place at her ground-floor residence at Pudupet Garden 3 Street in Royapettah. Around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Venmathi was feeding her five-year-old son who had returned from school. As the boy insisted on watching television, she locked the house and went to her in-laws’ house next door.
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Within 15 minutes, she returned with her son to find a woman, dressed in a yellow sari and beads, coming out of her house. A shocked Venmathi questioned the women who claimed to be a devotee.
“The suspect, who had pocketed the gold and the cash from the house, told Venmathi that she had come in search of one Vijaya, a milk-sachet vendor. When Venmathi confronted her, she claimed she had got the wrong address and started crying, claiming that she was a devotee and not a thief. Then she asked for some water to drink,” said an investigating officer.
While Venmathi and her son were entering the house, the suspect pushed them inside, bolted the main door from outside and fled. Hearing Venmathi’s cries for help, her mother-in-law came to the spot and the two women along with neighbours went searching for the woman.
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The suspect, however, got a ride on a motorcycle with an acquaintance of Venmathi, residing on the adjoining street, after convincing him that her grandson had been in an accident an hour before and was admitted at the Government Royapettah Hospital. The man, who came to know the truth later, dropped her near the hospital from where she escaped.
The Royapettah police have registered a case and are investigating.