Burglary gang traced to Tiruvarur, jewels, car and cash recovered

The arrested were identified as T Muruganandham (37) of Tiruvarur, R Sudha Anand (30) of Kovur and G Sankarapandian (45) of Tirunelveli. A hunt has been launched for the absconding accused, Jeevanandham.

The police said that all four were history-sheeters and Sudha Anand has 19 cases pending against him, while Muruganandham has six cases against him in Madurai. Sankarapandian, too, has eight cases against him at Thoothukudi, Madurai and Tirunelveli. “They became friends when they were lodged in Madurai Central Prison and decided to carry out burglaries together,” said inspector R Amudha.

On January 28, when they were travelling in Sudha Anand’s car, the gang noticed S Arumugam of Radha Nagar in Valasaravakkam waiting outside his house with family for a hired vehicle. After the family left, the gang broke open the house and escaped with 70 sovereigns and cash, apart from the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) attached to the CCTV cameras in the house.

However, the Valasaravakkam police identified the vehicle used for the offence from CCTV footages retrieved in the neighbourhood and found it abandoned near Koyambedu. Though the accused had tampered with the registration number, the police managed to secure the vehicle’s owner, Sudha Anand. Through him, other accused were nabbed from Tiruvarur.

All four were remanded in judicial custody. Sudha Anand reportedly told the police that he started burgling houses after he incurred losses in grocery business.