Mechanic loots with friends to garner money for marriage

The accused was identified as Chelladurai from Chromepet. The police also arrested his associates, Vignesh (21), an autorickshaw driver, and Michael Antony (21), car driver from Sai Nagar in Chromepet. They were arrested near Tambaram while looting a house to raise money for the marriage.

Police said Chelladurai was in a relationship with a girl from the same locality. A few days ago, he went to meet the girl's father along with his friends. But when he broached the subject and expressed his wish of marrying his daughter, the man pointed out to Chelladurai that he did not even have a proper job.

He then allegedly challenged him to meet him after earning Rs 10 lakh if he wanted to marry his daughter. Following this, Chelladurai and his friends planned to rob locked houses.

Last week, they stole a two-wheeler from Tambaram State Bank Colony. On Sunday night, they decided to loot a locked house in Sriram Nagar in West Tambaram. They reached the spot in a car that Antony had taken on lease. The trio broke the door and went inside the house. But finding no valuables like gold or cash, they took an LED TV, microwave and other goods and escaped from there.

On Tuesday, when house owner Sundara Pandian (64) returned home, he found that his house was burgled and informed the Tambaram police. The police with the help of the CCTV footage found the car registration number and tracked the owner, identified as Kumar. When questioned, Kumar told the police that Antony had taken the vehicle on lease.

After investigation, the police arrested all three of them early morning on Thursday. They reportedly admitted that they started looting houses to earn quick money and had planned to sell the stolen goods at Pallavaram Friday market. The police recovered bike that was stolen from the State Bank Colony last week and other stolen goods, and remanded the trio in judicial custody.