Tirupur: The district rural police arrested a 30-year-old serial chain-snatcher and recovered 21 sovereigns of gold from him in the city on Tuesday.
S Sundarapandian, of Washington Nagar, runs a vehicle cleaning station at Arulpuram. He had partnered with M Pitchaimani, 40, of Thalakkarai, to commit chain-snatching offences. Police managed to arrest Sundarapandian while Pitchaimani is still at large.
Sundarapandian and Pitchaimani would target women staying alone. On February 11, Poongothai of Namakkal district was standing along with her granddaughter at Arakkulam as their car got repaired. Two unidentified bike-borne men came and snatched 11-sovereign gold chain from her, said a police officer.
In another incident, the miscreants snatched five-sovereign gold chain from a 60-year-old woman when she was alone at her house at Aiswariya Garden in Pollikalipalayam on July 2. Kannammal of Pallavarayanpalayam also lost her five-sovereign gold chain when she was working in her grocery shop. The duo pretended to buy biscuit and snatched the gold chain and fled, said the officer.
All three cases were registered with the Avinashipalayam police. A special team formed to crack the chain-snatching cases nabbed Sundarapandian and recovered 21 sovereigns of gold from him.
