The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 500 sovereigns stolen in Tondiarpet burglary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

500 sovereigns stolen in Tondiarpet burglary

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, AUG. 21. Gold jewels weighing nearly 500 sovereigns were burgled from a house on Tandavarayan Street at Tondiarpet.

The burglary came to light this afternoon, when the residents returned home from Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. In his complaint to the Tondiarpet police, P. Vallaraj said about 500 sovereigns and some cash were missing from the safety locker that was kept in the `puja' room. An advocate and auditor, Vallaraj, said six of his family members had left home at 2 p.m. yesterday.

When they came back at around 2 p.m. today, they found the doors and the locker open and the valuables burgled. The police said they had lifted five fingerprint impressions from the scene of crime. A dog from the city police detective dog squad picked up a scent and traced it till an autorickshaw stand at the end of the street.

The police obtained the fingerprint impressions of the inmates and relatives of the complainant. Relatives of Vallaraj said one had to use a combination of 10 keys in a particular formation to open the locker's steel doors.

On Thursday, the family had hired a locksmith to repair two locks on the locker's doors. As the job had not been completed, they had secured only eight of the locks before leaving for Kalahasti. The culprit had rummaged through almirahs in rooms on the ground and mezzanine floors.

Three teams had been formed to investigate the burglary.

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