Chennai: A 56-year-old woman-habitual offender was arrested on Sunday night by the city police after she pocketed a bag of jewels containing Rs 16 lakh worth ruby and diamond jewellery belonging to a woman from Andhra Pradesh. The culprit was caught within three hours on the very day of the theft thanks to CCTV footage and an alert cop, who identified the woman as a habitual offender from the surveillance tapes.
The victim Shailaja Reddy (60), and her husband Janardhanan Reddy (65), from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, came to Chennai to attend a domestic function, after which they were exploring the City’s famous shopping hub in T. Nagar for their Deepavali purchases.
The couple realised that the jewel bag was missing only when they sat down to eat at a restaurant at around 4 pm. The couple reported the loss of the jewel bag to the Mambalam Police, who then began poring through all the available CCTV footage.
The suspect was identified as J. Mary (56), resident of Mylapore, who is speech impaired and involved in thestealthy trade for quite some time, with at least 10 cases of theft against her in the City.
In the tape, she was seen diverting the attention of Shailaja in a textile showroom and pocketing the handbag which had the bag of jewellery.
She was traced to her residence in Mylapore where she admitted to have stolen the jewels - a ruby necklace, diamond bangles and earrings – which were then recovered from her possession. She had been arrested in theft cases by Mambalam Police in 2006 and Pondy Bazaar Police in 2011.
If she was flagged or caught while operating her nefarious plans, she would use her handicap to wriggle out of any tight situations.Sympathy would usually see her win over her victim who would prefer not to initiate any action against her,” a senior police official told DC while explaining her modus operandi.
The City Police took the help of a sign-language translator in order to record the formalities of the arrest, and the woman was subsequently remanded to judicial custody.
