Chain snatchers on free run, 4 cases in 2 days

A bike-borne trio snatched two gold chains weighing 18 sovereigns from a woman on Wall Tax Road, when she was returning home from a wedding on a bike along with her husband on Tuesday night. 

Police said that the incident happened when the couple, Munusamy and Jayalakshmi, who live in Subbu Chetty Street in Seven Wells, were making a U-turn on Wall Tax Road on their way back home. 

“A bike-borne trio, who had followed them from a distance, stopped near the barricades with the engine on. One of them got down from the bike and snatched the jewels from Jayalakshmi, who was riding pillion, when the bike was going slow in the turn. Even before she realised what was happening, all three of them sped sway towards Moolakothalam,” said a cop, who recorded her statement. 

The incident happened around 9.15 pm when the road was still busy. An FIR has been filed and the cops are searching for the trio.  In a similar incident, a four-sovereign chain was snatched by two men on bike from a 42-year-old woman at Peter’s Road in Royapettah. 

Police said, that the victim Manjula was a resident of Thousand Lights and was bringing her son from school when she lost her chain to snatchers. The chain snatching incidents in broad day light has created fear among women as the snatchers mostly target women who walk alone in the city.

In yet another incident, a woman was relieved of her gold chain weighing 2.5 sovereigns by two men on Tuesday morning at Mugalivakkam, when she was on her way to buy milk. Cops attached to Nandambakkam police, on hearing the victim Rani’s cries, chased and caught the duo, identified as Riyaz Ahmed (23) of Adambakkam and Sasikumar (25) of Padi. Police said that the duo already has similar cases pending against them and have remanded them in judicial custody. In Ambattur too, there was a chain-snatching incident reported on Tuesday.