The incident happened on Bazaar road on Independence Day (Sunday) and the shop in which flower and fruits are sold. The shopkeeper, Apoorva Sigamani (68), left his wife, also a senior citizen, in the shop to have lunch at home when a man wearing formals reached the shop on a two-wheeler.

Claiming that he was a sanitary inspector, he told the woman that he received information that gutkha is being sold at the shop. When the woman refused, he asked her to step out to carry out searches.

The man, in the pretext of conducting a search took the cash box and fled the spot in a two-wheeler. As the woman raised an alarm, passers-by managed to note down the two-wheeler's registration number.

Based on a complaint from Apoorva Sigamani, Mylapore police have launched a hunt for the suspect.