The incident occurred on Thursday in the house of Srinivasan, a relative of social activist Chromepet V Santhanam. The suspect initially approached Santhanam with a claim of responding to a ‘bride wanted’ matrimonial advertisement. The suspect was later identified as ‘Silver’ Srinivasan by police after they browsed through the CCTV footage.

He told Santhanam that his daughter was a bank employee and was looking for a suitable groom. Santhanam then told him that the advertisement was for his relative staying in Pammal and sent ‘Silver’ Srinivasan to Pammal on a vehicle. After the initial round of talks, both families agreed to the marriage and ‘Silver’ Srinivasan even had lunch at the house.

Later, the master thief suggested that they should do a pooja blessing the couple and asked them to arrange gold and turmeric among other things for pooja. The family gave him a two sovereign gold chain for the purpose. ‘After the pooja, Silver’ Srinivasan told the family that the items should be taken out from the pooja room only after three days.

He later went out saying he would return after visiting a temple nearby. But he never back. Later the family lodged a complaint with Shankar Nagar police with the help of Santhanam. Police said ‘Silver’ Srinivasan got his name because he used to steal only silver articles earlier.