CHENNAI: A private school correspondent was robbed of 100 sovereigns of gold jewellery in broad daylight at Virugambakkam by a gang on Tuesday, in what appeared to be a cleverly executed attention diversion tactic.
Murugesan, who runs a private school at Virugambakkam and is a resident of Rajeswari Street, was returning home after collecting the jewellery from a bank locker for an upcoming function in the family when he was stopped by a biker around 1.35 pm on the busy Kaliamman Koil Street. The biker claimed he flagged the car down as one of its tyres was flat.
As Murugesan got down from the vehicle to check the tyres, another man riding pillion on the bike engaged him in a conversation seeking directions to reach Koyambedu.
After patiently giving him the directions and getting back into the car, Murugesan realised that the bag containing the jewellery was missing and the two men on the bike too had disappeared.
“From the statements, it is apparent that the man who was driving the bike sneaked into the car and took the bag that was kept in the rear seat,” said a police officer.
Subsequently, Murugesan lodged a complaint with the Virugambakkam police and until Tuesday night the police said they were yet to achieve any major breakthrough in the case.
Murugesan told the police he felt that about five bikes were tailing him from the bank premises in KK Nagar up to Virugambakkam. Incidentally, he was hardly a few metres away from his house when the robbery occurred.
“We are examining the CCTV footage for any clues and are verifying whether the robbers had followed the complainant from the bank. It appears to be well planned and coordinated by a group of robbers,” said assistant commissioner of police A Subbarayan.