CHENNAI: The Mambalam police arrested a 32-year-old driver working with a call-taxi service for stealing the jewels of a bride, whose family had hired his services. A CCTV grab showed the driver stealing money from another car as well.
According to police, Gowtham and Sangeetha got married recently and arrived at a private marriage hall on South Boag Road in T Nagar on June 8 for the ‘Kattu Saadham’ ceremony.
The family had booked two cars with Fast Track for the whole day and left for their home in Madippakkam late in the afternoon after the ceremony.
On reaching their place, the family noticed that 30 sovereigns of gold jewels worn by the bride and packed in the luggage were missing. The bride’s elder sister was the one who packed the jewels and also noticed the valuables missing. Subsequently, the family preferred a complaint with Mambalam police.
Since Krishnasamy marriage hall, where the ceremony was organised, had complete video surveillance, police perused the footage obtained from all the cameras on the premises and noticed suspicious movement by one of the drivers, identified as Jayapal, a native of Thisaiyanvilai in Nellai district and currently settled in Saidapet. Closer inspection revealed him stealing money from the dashboard of another car. When checked with the driver of the car, he reported loss of `2,500.
Following this, Mambalam inspector M Appadurai contacted Jeyapal as a prospective customer for a trip but he refused stating he had been sick for a week. Another cop also tried to contact Jeyapal but the latter disconnected the call. “Jeyapal was summoned for interrogation during which he confessed to have taken the cash and jewels.
He had pledged about 3 sovereigns at a pawn shop in Ashok Nagar. Jeyapal tricked Joseph Samuel, driver of the other car, to go inside the hall for food and took money from the dashboard”, said a senior police officer.
T Nagar DCP P Saravanan appreciated Appadurai and his team for solving the case within a few hours and nabbing the accused besides recovering the valuables