Chennai: The city police held three men who carried out a series of robberies in Anna Nagar, Velacheri and Korattur. An accused, identified as Mohammed Aboobacker Siddique (27) of Avvai Nagar, Padi, was caught with a gold bar weighing 20 sovereigns.
He is said to have broken into the house of ex-IAS officer Leena Nair on 12 May. The family lived on the first floor, so he broken into the ground floor of the house and decamped with 16 sovereigns of gold and Rs 5,000.
Following this, on 7 July, he broke into a shop in his neighbourhood belonging to Pon Shankar and stole Rs 9,000. He also threatened a man, Raguraman at Sivalingapuram, Korattur, at knife-point while he was walking to the nearby bus stop. The man parted with Rs 500.
The police have taken him into custody and are investigating how he got the bar of gold. In an unrelated case, a special team of police arrested Kamal Kannan (30), of Tiruvannamalai and Dakshinamurthy (45) of Tiruchy from a hideout in M R Nagar, Red Hills. The duo has been involved in a number of robberies in Velacheri. The police seized 90 sovereigns of gold from them.