After robbing at knifepoint three members of family of over 120 sovereigns of gold, the masked dacoits had taken away many household articles from the house of a TNEB officer at Subbulapuram on Saturday midnight.
The officer, P. Rajamani, said the dacoits had loaded an SUV, parked outside the house, with a television set, home theatre system, mixer, two cooking gas cylinders, laptop, printers, iron, sewing machine and some dolls among others.
The culprits who had operated for nearly two hours with the light from their mobiles phones had the patience to unfix the wall-mounted power stabiliser of an air-conditioner in the living room. They had also taken the power stabilisers of the television set and the refrigerator. They took with them the mobile phones of the couple. The inmates were perplexed by the unusual behaviour of the culprits who had not left even a mirror kept near the wash basin and a wall clock.
Additional Superintendent of Police John Rose said it could have been a ploy by the criminals to prevent the police from guessing their identity through the ‘modus operandi.’
Besides taking the bundle of jewels, the culprits also snatched the gold chain from Mr. Rajamani’s wife, Jayarani. “They forced me to part with a five-sovereign gold chain and ear studs,” Mrs. Jayarani said.
The police recovered a long iron rod, reportedly used for breaking open the lock of the grille gate in the rear side of the house. A chappal and a towel, supposed to be left behind by the culprits, were also recovered by the police.
Meanwhile, neighbours had told the victims that a white Tata Sumo used to be parked in the vicinity for a few days prior to the incident. Even the previous noon, two persons had walked up to the house, after parking the vehicle in the nearby road, in the guise of looking for a piece of land.
The police suspect that the culprits could have watched the movement of the inmates for a few days.
