Chennai: Chain snatched, woman helps nab robber after 1km chase

CHENNAI: A 32-year-old Perambur resident was riding home with her son on Friday night in Perambur when a young man rode close to her, snatched her gold chain and sped away. Nandhini Deepakraj, the victim, immediately gave chase on her scooter through a warren of lanes, screaming for help all the way, and helped nab him.
A team of the Sembium police arrived and took Allauddin, a third year student of an arts and science college in Arumbakkam, to the station.A court sent him to jail on Saturday.
A police officer said Nandhini, an MBA holder, had taken her seven-year-old son D Jeevan to the Murasoli Maran park near Perambur railway station and was returning home on her scooter when Allauddin snatched her gold chain near Palaniandavar Koil on Perambur-Madhavaram Road around 9pm.
“Before I could react, the robber pushed me aside leaving me with a cut on the neck. I looked at my son and saw panic in his eyes. I wanted to be brave and set off my scooter,” Nandhini told TOI.
Fortune too favoured her as Allauddin in his attempt to escape slammed into an elderly man at the crowded Vellaiyan market and fell to the ground. Before he could get up, Nandhini arrived. Holding him by the collar, the woman screamed at others in the area to come to her help, witnesses later told police.
When a crowd gathered around the spot, the nabbed assailant denied any wrong doing and said the woman had mistaken him for another person and caught him. A search of his person found nothing. But, Nandhini, a resident of Madura Street, wouldn’t let go of him, sure that she she hadn’t made any mistake.
A team of the Sembium police arrived and took the suspect to the station. Nandhini and her son went too. At the station, when crime wing sub-inspector Vijayakumar questioned him, the man insisted that it was a case of mistaken identity. But, police scanned CCTV camera footage from the scene of crime near Palaniandavar Koil and found he was the culprit.
Inquiries revealed that Allauddin had been involved in series of robbery incidents in north Chennai over the past two and-a-half months. The bike on which he was caught belonged to a friend who is a resident of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar. He often borrowed the bike to commit robberies, the officer said.
While police commended her for her bravery, Nandhini said, “My husband Deepakraj, a software engineer, returned from work and asked me how I managed to nab the robber.”