Women in real life are far from what movies and TV serials show them to be. They are not kind mothers, weeping wives and naive daughters. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, News Today gives a peek into how women in the city dabble in the world of crime.
In reality, the city has a number of women who are as ruthless as men and often make shocking headlines.
A crime inspector says, “Some of the criminal activities women get involved in are ganja peddling, prostitution rackets, leading gangster groups, cheating cases, revenge murders and so on.” He added that women inspectors are far more tougher in handling such cases and they shout down so badly that suspects are reduced to tears during inquiries.
City-based detective Varadarajan says, “We have a list of women criminals in Chennai. Most of them, however, are not repeat offenders. New ones keep coming into the scene.”
One such woman who still stays fresh in his memory is Devi. She was caught a few years ago for day light robberies. A resident of Valluvar Kottam, she entered the field after her husband met with an accident. She was interesting because she was good-looking. Her modus operandi was peculiar she goes to the spot with a yellow bag. She tampered with the lock of houses leaving the yellow cloth bag hanging on the latch to conceal the broken lock.
She also dropped a Rs 1 coin into it. When she was eventually caught, she explained to the police why she dropped the coin, it was her belief she would not get caught whenever she looted. Devi also sprinkled water on the bureau so her fingerprints could not be lifted from the scene of crime.
Experts say that women involved in revenge murders for emotional or sentimental reasons, it was rarely for material gains. Take for example what happened in Nesapakkam, two months ago, a woman identified as Manjula had an extramarital affair with Nagaraj.
Subsequently, Nagaraj murdered her nine-year-old son thinking the boy would be a hindrance for the affair. Manjula’s husband who blamed her for the loss of their son asked her for her property. She decided to murder Nagaraj once he was out on bail. She first bought a gun to kill him both of them, but the weapon turned out to be duplicate. She arranged for hired killers and eliminated Nagaraj.
Varadarajan said, “The psychology of a woman who wants to take revenge is sentimental. Here it begins with an extramarital relationship, after that she lost her son, which is why she turned to kill him. Woman also avenge when they are cheated.”
Apart from such isolated cases, another field, the women wield a lot of influence is the money-lending business. In many parts of north Chennai, a police source said, “Women make money through ‘kanduvatti’, drug trafficking, illicit liquor. In case they face any opposition or problem, they use their client, who are already criminals, to handle it. This is how they slowly earn their ‘gangster’ status.”