Police crack 20 burglary cases

CHENNAI: Ten persons, allegedly involved in about 20 cases of theft and burglary in the suburbs, were arrested on Monday and 225 sovereigns of gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 30 lakh recovered.
One of them, according to the police, is Suresh alias Selvam of Kanyakumari district. He recently broke into a house in Madipakkam and made off with about 59 sovereigns of gold jewellery worth about Rs 6 lakh, meant for a wedding next month.The residents, Sundari (51) and her daughter Ranjani (25), were asleep on the first floor of the house in Kuberan Nagar. Suresh was able to break in easily, the police said, because the main gate was unlocked and the other doors not properly locked. Suresh then buried the stolen jewellery in a garbage dump in Balaji Nagar as he did after every burglary.
On Monday, he was taken to the dump and the jewellery recovered. Suresh, the police said, had been involved in 30 cases of burglary and had spent time in jail and also booked under the Goondas Act.
The other arrested were Sunderajan alias Raja, Ravi, Ajith, Mohan, Perumal, Prakash, Balaji, Manikandan and Gunasekaran.
The police said all the accused were proclaimed offenders which made it easier to track them down. "We found out the list of the professional thieves who had been in jail and recently been released on bail and managed to nab the accused," an officer said.
Raja, Ravi, Manikandan were professionals who first surveyed the targeted area, spoke to people in the locality and identified houses which were isolated before striking, the police said.
Suresh, the police said, hailed from Kanyakumari district but made Chennai his base for his activities. "He is short-statured and agile, he identifies houses where marriages are fixed and watches the movement of the residents and then strikes as he knows that lots of jewellery will be there," police said.
The suburban police had been maintaining a dossier on most thieves and their movements, the commissioner added.