London-based woman cooling heels behind bars after a great temple run

COIMBATORE: Temple festivals are one of those events that help the diaspora keep in touch with its roots. London resident C Selvi finds such events hard to resist. Selvi scrambles to India whenever a sea of devotees trickles into the temple towns across the country. Not out of devotion, though. When police caught her, along with two associates, she had no less than 20 sovereigns snatched from devotees at various cultural festivals.

Every year, after meticulous planning and detailing, P Mathi (27), a resident of Thrissur in Kerala, and R Parasakthi (36), from Tiruvanmiyur in Chennai, would make an ISD call. The call to London would be picked by C Selvi (36), currently settled with family in London but originally from Tiruvanmiyur in Chennai. Based on the call, Selvi would make a trip to Tamil Nadu, where she would team up with the other two to visit towns in festive fervour. There, they would relieve unsuspecting devotees of their gold possessions, said a police officer.

The trio had gained notoriety by attending various temple festivals; so much so that a special team was formed by the Coimbatore police only to nab them. When the Koniamman Temple Car Festival was organised on Wednesday, the police received multiple complaints regarding chain snatching. On sifting through the CCTV footage collected from the locality, the police identified the trio. Finally, the long arm of law caught up with the trio, and nabbed them for relieving 10 sovereigns from devotees at the car festival. Later, the combined worth of seizure made from them was pegged at 20 sovereigns.

The modus operandi was in line with their earlier attempts. Collect details of the temple festivals (March 4 in this instance), land in the town, book a room, prey on devotees and return to their hideout. The crowd cover always came in handy.

A police official said that the trio had left its indelible footprints in the crime world across the country. For now, Selvi might need to change her travel plans, for a trip back to London looks extremely unlikely as a stay at one of the many Tamil Nadu jails beckons.