Gold, car stolen at knifepoint - cops suspect hand of interstate gang

The victims reported that the gang members did not speak Tamil and were wearing masks. Police suspect that they could be from other states. It has raised a suspicion whether it is a return of Bawaria-like gang that did series of brutal heists in the district nearly a decade ago. 

A Tamil movie which released last year had a storyline inspired by those incidents. The victims Ramachadran (69) and his wife Rajitha (58) were sleeping on the ground floor of the two-storeyed bungalow at Padmavathy Nagar in Rajaji Puram, Tiruvallur when the gang entered the house by breaking open the back door around 1 am. Their son Lokesh Kumar (37) was sleeping on the first floor. 

As the couple woke up to the noise, the gang surrounded them and threatened them at knifepoint to not make any noise. Later, they tied them and escaped with 150 sovereigns of gold ornaments, spectacles with golden frame worth Rs 1 lakh, wrist watches, iPad and two mobile phones. 

While leaving the house, they also drove away their car which was parked in the compound. Lokesh heard his parents’ cries only after a couple of hours. He came downstairs and relieved them from the clutches and alerted the Tiruvallur town police. 

A police team rushed to the spot and collected evidence from the house. The two mobile phones and iPad were found abandoned a few metres away from the house and police suspect that they could have thrown away the phones to avoid being traced through the mobile network. 

DIG Thenmozhi and Tiruvallur Superintendent Sibi Chakravarthy visited the house. 

Speaking to DT Next, the Superintendent said that the gang did not speak Tamil and added that they could have been from some other state. “They will be nabbed within two days,” he added. The gang did not harm the couple. 

Since the bungalow doesn’t have CCTV cameras, police had to collect footage from neighbours’ houses. The check posts in the district have been alerted to identify the stolen car. 

Lokesh Kumar is also an auditor and the father-son duo has their office at Nelson Manickam Road in Aminjikarai. The couple has another son and he is abroad.