Chennai: The Irani gang took just one hour, working with clockwork precision, to snatch gold chains at six locations, targeting only aged women walkers early on Tuesday. The city police formed special teams, scanned footage of scores of CCTV cameras, zeroed in on the culprits and nabbed them within three hours.
City commissioner of police A Arun told reporters on Wednesday that while one robber landed in Chennai at 2am, the other landed at 4am. Their accomplice met them outside the airport with a bike he had brought from Bidar in Karnataka.
By 6 am, they had found their first victim, at Saidapet. They had made their sixth and final snatching by 7 am, abandoned their bike and taken a taxi to the airport where they booked tickets on flights scheduled to depart between10am and 11am.
“Had the duo left the city, it would have become difficult to trace or arrest them. They say it is not possible to arrest them in their neighbourhood in Thane,” said the commissioner, commending airport inspector, Pandi, who organised security personnel after being alerted by city police.
Though Irani gangs usually engage in attention-diversion crimes, this time the gang changed its modus operandi and committed robbery, said the commissioner.
Based on what Jaffer Gulam Hussain Irani, 28, and Meesan Amjith Irani, 23, told the police after they were arrested at the airport, their accomplice Salman Hussain, 25, of Sendhwa in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, was nabbed at Ongole railway station in Andhra Pradesh. He had fled the city on the Pinakini Express with part of the loot.
All the victims were elderly women on morning walks in Saidapet, Thiruvanmiyur, Besant Nagar, Adyar and Guindy. Their robbed Indira, 54, at Injambakkam of a two-sovereign gold chain; Lakshmi, 65, at Indira Nagar in Adyar of eight sovereigns; Ambujammal, 66, at Besant Nagar of three sovereigns; Nirmala, 60, near Guindy Race Course of 9.5 sovereigns; Vijaya, 72, at Medavakkam of two sovereigns of a gold chain; and Murugammal, 55, of three sovereigns of a gold chain. Lakshmi fell down and was injured when the pillion rider snatched her chain.
“We got in touch with our counterparts in Maharashtra and found that the gang was involved in more than 50 robbery cases in Maharashtra, and could be involved in incidents in Hosur and Coimbatore. Our teams are checking this information,” said Arun. All the 26.5 sovereigns of jewellery have been recovered from the suspects, he added.
Meesan Amjith Irani and Salman Hussain have been remanded in judicial custody.
Chennai city police have stepped up security patrols during early morning hours to protect walkers, the commissioner said.