CHENNAI: In yet another daring robbery in the city, a masked gang looted 150 sovereign gold and Rs 14 lakh cash from a house at Kalakshetra Colony after assaulting a resident with a knife and forcing the terrified family to hand over the cupboard keys in the wee hours of Tuesday.
Police said the 6-member gang had knocked the door of the
house at around 3.30 am and when Madhiarasan, the family head, opened the door, one of the robbers attacked him on his hand and head with the knife.
“Immediately, others who were standing near the door entered the house. The terrified family members handed over the keys as asked by the gang and remained as mute spectators," said a senior police officer.
On hearing the screams of Madhiarasan, his wife, two children and another visiting relative, who were sleeping in different rooms in the house woke up and rushed to the door. But terrified on seeing the gang and the injuries they had inflicted on Madhiarasan, the family members preferred not to put up a fight, but hand over the keys of the cupboards as asked by the gang.
The family has told police that about six persons entered the house and all of them were wearing masks. "After one of them stabbed Madhiarasan on his hand, the mask
accidentally fell off," a family member had told the investigators.
Police suspect that the robbers were persons known to the family, since they seemed to know where the cupboards were placed in the house. The gang members were inebriated and police sources said they had reached the spot in a car and consumed liquor in the playground just opposite house.
Madhiarasan is running a Tasmac bar and had been living as a tenant in the house. He is undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
The family has filed a complaint with the Thiruvanmiyur police, who have launched a search for the suspects involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, police have obtained CCTV footage available in the locality.