Three robberies in six hours, two held

CHENNAI: Knife-wielding robbers struck at will in the city on Thursday morning, seizing four cellphones, a laptop and Rs 25,000 in cash in three separate incidents.
At around 1am, B Manikandaprabhu, of Krishna Nagar in Tambaram, and his friend Sri Vignesh Kumar were riding a Honda Activa on the Moopanar Bridge at Turnbulls Road, when three men on a motorbike intercepted them.

The men asked for Manikandaprabhu's phone, claiming they had to make an emergency call. When he gave his phone to them, the trio took out knives and demanded that Manikandaprabhu and Vignesh hand over their valuables. The men robbed them of two mobile phones and Rs 4,000 in cash before fleeing. When the duo raised an alarm, passersby immediately alerted the Kotturpuram police station and a patrol team rushed to the spot. Police managed to nab two of the suspects – M Abbas, 26 and P Vicky alias Vigneswaran, 25, of Thousand Lights – and have launched a search for the third man.

A couple of hours later, Kanagaraj was heading to Koyambedu market to buy vegetables at 3.25am. As he was riding on the R K Salai bridge in Alwarpet, two men on a bike intercepted him, whipped out knives and seized the key of his vehicle.

“They took my phone and Rs 17,000 in cash and threatened to slit my throat if I shouted out,” said Kanagaraj, adding that he remembers their appearance but failed to note down the registration number of their bike.

In another incident on Perambur Barracks Road, a 34-year-old software engineer was relieved of his cell phone, laptop and Rs 4000 in cash.

Zahir Ahmed, of Ambedkar Salai, Vyasarpadi, was returning home after completing a night shift at his office in Manapakkam when two bike-borne men intercepted him at knifepoint at 7am. He lodged a complaint at the Vepery police station.

In a similar incident at around 3.30am, an MTC conductor was attacked by a bike-borne duo with a knife when he refused to part with his gold chain. When Karthikeyan, 49, who is attached to the Ennore MTC depot, was waiting to board the bus, the duo tried to snatch the chain but he foiled them, suffering injuries on his hand in the process. Based on his complaint, Aminjikarai police are trying to establish their identity using CCTV footage.