Duo scoot with woman's handbag from hotel.
Chennai: Police on Tuesday arrested two software engineers for lifting off an iPhone worth Rs 65,000 and handbag of a woman from a star hotel near Teynampet last Sunday.
The duo, M. Raghu (30) and R. Rajesh (28), are co-workers at an IT firm in Siruseri and live in a gated community- Cosmo city in Pudupakkam nearby. They had stolen the phone to lift contacts of the women friends of the woman, police sources said.
On Sunday, the duo went for a dinner at the hotel when they stole the handbag. The victim, 29-year-old Ramya Joseph of Maduravoyal had come to attend the birthday party of a family friend there, police said.
After the birthday celebrations, Ramya had left her iPhone and handbag on a chair there and left for the washroom. When she returned after a few minutes, the iPhone and the handbag were missing. The handbag had another smartphone and cash worth Rs 12,000 in it, according to a police officer.
After a futile search, Ramya approached the Teynampet police with a complaint. Officers poured over the CCTV footage from the hotel to find the duo sneaking away with the handbag. They were traced and picked up on Monday evening.
“The men told our personnel that they had stolen the phone to get contact numbers of the woman’s female friends,” a senior police officer said. Raghu and Rajesh were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody in Puzhal prison. The handbag was recovered with the items intact and handed over to the woman, police said.
