CHENNAI: Police on Saturday solved the February 4 case of waylaying and robbery, in which silver crowns weighing 6.5 kg were snatched from temple authorities, by arresting seven suspects with the help of a stolen mobile phone. Police also recovered 6.5 kg of silver ingots from them.
A Murugan, a resident of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, and his brother Kesavan were taking 6.5 kg silver crowns, meant for the temple deity, to their goldsmith unit at Edapalayam in Sowcarpe on February 4. The robbers riding bikes hit their bike near Pattalam near Pulianthope and, when the victims were struggling with bruises in the accident, they snatched 20 silver crowns on the pretext of helping them and sped away.
According to the police, they had zeroed in on the suspects by tracking a mobile phone, which the robbers had stolen from Murugan. The police went into gear when they found the phone active on Friday.
Police nabbed one of the suspects C Suman (34) of Vyasarpadi and based on his confession, traced down others - K Venkatesan (47), D Satish Kumar (26), S Benjamin (36) all from Vyasarpadi and S Yoganand (25) and S Faizal (31), natives of Karaikudi - and one more.
The Pulianthope police have registered a case and a court remanded the accused in prison. During inquiry, it was revealed that these culprits were involved in an earlier robbery in Otteri where they robbed a person of `3.5 lakh.
According to the police, the seven will be arrested in the Otteri robbery case also after getting a pending trial warrant from a magistrate court in the city.
Woman Found Dead
A nine-month pregnant woman committed suicide, hanging from the ceiling in her house on Friday.
Police said, Mary Jesse, married to a software professional Stephen for 18 months, had been working in a private medical college at Pallikaranai. On Friday, when Jesse was on leave, her husband tried to reach her over mobile phone from workplace. However, there was no response from Jesse’s end.
Worried, Stephen called his neighbour in the same apartment to check on his wife. When they informed him that the house was locked from inside and she was not responding to the calling bell, a rattled Stephen rushed back home and broke the door open to find his wife hanging from the ceiling in the bedroom. The body was moved to the Chrompet GH for postmortem.
Meanwhile, Jesse’s father John from Vridhachalam has lodged a complaint that his son-in-law had abetted the suicide. He alleged that Stephen had an inferiority complex over his looks, which had affected their married life.
Temple Idol Missing
An idol went missing from a temple at Chintadripet on Friday.
According to police, the Goddess Thandumariamman Idol, made of bronze and weighing 15 kg, from a temple at Palani Andavar Street in Chintadripet was missing when the priest opened the temple for conducting evening poojas.