The Hindu : Lone aged women soft target for criminals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Lone aged women soft target for criminals

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI, JAN. 18. The assault on a 68-year-old woman at West Mambalam in the early hours on Saturday has brought into focus the safety of aged women staying alone in flats.

Though police officials have not yet zeroed in on any suspect, they rule out burglary as the motive behind the attack on S. Saraswathi. The exact provocation for the attack is yet to be ascertained, they say. J.K. Tripathy, Joint Commissioner (South), says his department has obtained some more clues on the assailant's identity. Ms. Saraswathi was still in a critical condition in the Apollo Hospitals.

Residents say patrolling in their area is not as intense as it should be, considering the fact that two attempts to rob houses in the same street were made over the past couple of months. This was acknowledged by the police too.

Shocked at the ease with which culprits were roaming in the area, a senior citizen, who retired from a private company, sold his house on Balakrishna Street Extension a few months ago to a flat promoter and settled elsewhere, a resident says.

The assault on Ms. Saraswathi is not an isolated incident in the city, though police claim that the crime graph dipped sharply in 2003 compared to the previous year. Aged women, especially those staying alone, seem to be easy target for burglars. A day before Ms. Saraswathi was brutally assaulted, a four-member gang broke into the house of a woman, when she was alone, in broad daylight and stole jewels.

The gangsters, all aged between 20 and 25 years, forced their way into the house of 68-year-old Bhagyalakshmi, living in a ground floor flat on Chengalvaroyan Steet at Aminjikarai. The culprits stole gold weighing more than 10 sovereigns. Ms. Bhagyalakshmi had been staying alone in the house ever since her husband died some years ago. Her children were staying elsewhere. She was not available for comment as the flat was locked this morning.

Another woman resident in the same complex, located at the dead end of Chengalvaroyan Street, was unwilling to narrate what had happened. Police officials say they have prepared sketches of the assailants based on Ms. Lakshmi's description of them and showed pictures of more than 2,000 suspects to her.

On December 20 last year, a youth forced his way into the house of Jamuna Bai, a 71-year-old woman staying at Aziz Nagar at Kodambakkam, attacked her with a knife and decamped with jewels and cash. The incident took place in broad daylight. Ms. Jamuna's husband had just gone out and seizing the opportunity, the culprit struck in a swift operation.

In all these incidents, the women were staying alone when the assailants struck. The incidents also highlight the ease with which culprits strike and vanish from the spot.

Meanwhile, a 60-year-old woman today complained to police that about 8 sovereigns of gold were stolen from the almirah in her house on Vellala Street at Purasawakkam. Vaijayanthi said she was staying alone on the first floor of her house and when she woke up this morning, she noticed the almirah broken open and the valuables stolen. Kilpauk police said culprits gained entry into the house after breaking the bathroom window.

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