Two held for conning 72-year-old woman near Tambaram

The arrested were identified as V Vasantha (38) and R Prakash (29), an auto driver from Erukkancheri, and the victim Saroja (72) is a maid from Irumbuliyur. Around 3 pm on April 1, Saroja was walking on the Tambaram flyover when an autorickshaw intercepted her.

Vasantha alighted the vehicle and approached Saroja and started to talk about lifetime pension. She also sought Saroja’s passport size photographs to fill up the form. Further, she told Saroja that the form should be submitted before evening.

As Saroja did not have photos with her, Vasantha and Prakash took her to a studio in Tambaram. They requested the elderly woman to remove her gold chain stating that her form will be rejected if the officials saw the ornaments in the photograph.

The police said that Saroja gave the chain to Vasantha before going inside the studio. When she came back, the duo and the autorickshaw they came inwere missing.

Saroja filed a complaint with the Tambaram police on April 2. The police browsed CCTV footages and they traced the vehicle number of the autorickshaw and found that it was from North Chennai.

On Tuesday morning, the police arrested Prakash and based on the details given by him, they arrested Vasantha, too.

The police said that the duo sold the chain to a local pawn shop owner and divided the money among them. They also added that they have cheated many people in a similar way.