Chennai: As many as 12 vehicles, including 8 cars and 4 auto rickshaws parked on a street were damaged by a gang of unidentified men at EB Nagar in neighbouring Kancheepuram district on Monday night. The gang operated freely after breaking all the streetlights in the area. The gang also threatened the families and told them not to come out on to the street.
A gang of around 8 to 10 youngsters, all below 20 years, arrived at a house in Veerasivaji street where the family was decorating the house for a wedding on Wednesday. Most of the group were drunk when came on the scene at around 12.30 at night and started ransacking the arrangements being made for the wedding.
Later they asked everyone in the street to get into their respective homes and not to come out before they left the scene. The gang went on damaging the windscreens of cars including a Hyundai Verna, a Maruti 800 and a Tata Indica besides the autorickshaws.
“We were readying the house and reception areas for the wedding on Wednesday. The gang smashed all the tubelights after terrorising the family members with their threatening actions. We had hired two autorickshaws for wedding-related work. Those were also damaged by them,” said K Ravi. His elder brother’s son is getting married on Wednesday.
Another resident of the neighbourhood, Sheela Rani (65), pointed out that it was the first time she witnessed such an unruly crowd. “We are staying here from 2005. This is a peaceful neighbourhood. My son is working in treasury. His car, a Tata Indica, was damaged by the gang. Nobody came out fearing the gang of anti-social elements,” she said.
Maneka Srinivasan, wife of the owner cum driver of an auto rickshaw, said her family was scared to come out of the house, though they became aware of the rampage going on outside at around 1 am.
The gang disappeared from the neighbourhood at around 1.30 am. The police came 30 minutes after that, though the residents had alerted the police about the gang much earlier.
“We came out when we heard police whistles. Kancheepuram taluk police wanted to know why we parked the vehicles on the road. If they had come much earlier they could have nabbed the gang,” one of the residents said. Police later said they are hunting for the gang, but added that it could not be a handiwork of local people.
