Woman assaults man, robs chain

CHENNAI: A 45-year-old man was left gobsmacked after a woman he offered to help with directions suddenly slapped him, grabbed his chain and sped away on a motorcycle on Pantheon Road on Friday.
Police said S Saikumar, who works for a computer firm on Montieth Road, was on Pantheon Road on Friday morning when a woman wearing a helmet approached him on a motorbike.
“Saikumar said she asked him how to get to Chepauk, then turned hostile and abused him for no apparent reason,” a police officer said. “She slapped him, snatched his 2 sovereign gold chain and raced away before he could react.”
Saikumar told police he was too shocked to note the registration number of the motorbike. He could not describe the woman in detail because she was wearing a helmet.
Police officers were not convinced by Saikumar’s account of the incident and questioned him. They asked him if he had any enemies or if there had been a dispute in his family.
“It was peak hour and the road would have been crowded so an incident like this sounds far-fetched,” said Egmore inspector P Thanaselvam. “As soon as the woman snatched his chain, he should have alerted the nearest traffic policeman, but he did not.”
“If Saikumar is telling the truth, someone in his family could be the culprit,” he said. “He told us there was some problem in his family.”
The Egmore police have registered a case and are searching for the woman.