Gang robs couple of cash, jewels at knife-point

CHENNAI: Seemingly unmindful of the inmates inside the house, burglars broke into an apartment and robbed jewels and cash at knifepoint in their bedroom at Kodambakkam on Thursday.It was around 2.45 am and 40-year-old Ramanan woke up to the sound of the steel almirah being opened in the bedroom where he, wife Loganayagi and teenaged son and daughter were fast asleep. Ramanan worked as manager in a share market firm in T Nagar and was a resident of the apartment on Second Main Road in Subramania Nagar for the last 15 years. On seeing the three intruders, with their faces covered with a cloth and a steel iron rod and small knives in their hands, Ramanan froze. His wife too woke up. The burglars then brandished their weapons and motioned the couple to keep quiet. While Loganayagi remained in the bedroom, Ramanan was pushed into the bathroom. At the trio’s beckoning, Loganayagi quickly removed her thali, a gold chain, a pair of gold bangles and handed the jewels to them. They also removed ornaments and cash inside the safe and decamped, but not before taking Ramanan’s two-wheeler keys. “It was all over in 15 minutes,” Assistant Commissioner (Ashok Nagar) S Gurusamy, who reached the scene of crime within half an hour, told Express. The burglars entered the house by nudging open the door latches by inserting a metal rod through an open window, he said. Ramanan told the police that the burglars appeared to be in the age group of 25- 35 years and were dressed in lungi and vest. Forensic experts, who were called in to examine the scene did not find any fingerprints, leading the police to suspect the ‘gloved hands’ of a professional gang in the burglary. Registering a case of robbery of 11 sovereigns and `11,500 in cash, the police are investigating the involvement of criminals who had just been released from jail and running short of cash. The couple was shown photographs of criminal offenders, but they could not identify any, the ACP said. “The burglars made their way into the building through a side gate that allows just one person at a time and not through the main gate,” he added. “So, it could be a local gang.”Interestingly, Raman’s children inside and the watchman Purushottaman outside remained sound asleep through out the ordeal.