In a major breakthrough in the continuing incidents of chain snatching, a special team of Sivakasi police arrested three persons and recovered 117.5 sovereigns of gold.
The arrested persons were identified as R. Sethuraman (42) of Ettaiyapuram, D. Manikandan and S. Mariselvam of Kovilpatti.
The Superintendent of Police, M. Rajarajan, said that the arrested persons were involved in 28 cases of chain snatching in all the sub-divisions across the district.
Sivakasi Deputy Superintendent of Police K. Saravana Kumar, who led the special team, said that the accused had the habit of mostly targeting women school teachers. “It is because the teachers used to wear at least five sovereigns of gold and they mostly rode on motorbikes alone,” he said.
With the images of the accused got through several closed circuit television camera footages, the police visited almost all the jails in south zone and shortlisted these accused and nabbed them, he added.
The accused are said to have robbed around 171.5 sovereigns of gold in the last 18 months. “In some of the cases, the victims had been pushed down from vehicle and they suffered injuries,” the DSP said.
The police said that one more accused, Kundu Manikandan, nephew of Sethuraman, was also involved in the crimes.
The police had also booked Sethuraman’s wife, Gururadha and mother Madathi, for instigating him to involve in the crime. The police were on the lookout for the two women and Kundu Manikandan.
The arrested persons were involved in 28 cases of chain snatching in all the sub-divisions across the district
