Trichy: Man who snatched chain from jawan’s wife nabbed

TRICHY: Almost three and a half months after a CRPF jawan made an appeal to DGP C Sylendrababu to nab the thief who snatched his wife’s 8.5-sovereign gold chain from their home at Perur near Musiri, Trichy rural police said it arrested the man on Tuesday. Jambunathapuram police arrested R Manikandan, 40, of Vallam in Thanjavur on charges of snatching the gold chain from N Kalaivani, wife of S Neelamegam, a CRPF soldier serving in Jammu and Kashmir.
The incident happened around 1 am on April 27 when Kalaivani and her baby were sleeping inside the house. Her in-laws were fast asleep outside after keeping the main door open for airflow to beat the summer heat. The accused trespassed into the house and snatched the 8.5-sovereign gold chain from her neck. As Neelamegam made a video appeal to the DGP seeking arrest of the accused, Trichy district superintendent of police Sujithkumar formed special teams to crack the case.
Since there was no progress in the investigation, Neelamegam submitted a petition to the collector in June seeking his intervention. Jambunathapuram police which struggled to make any headway in the case received a breakthrough when the accused Manikandan confessed to the robbery while he was being quizzed by Musiri police in connection with a two-wheeler theft a few days ago.
He had melted the snatched chain in Namakkal and kept it in his house at Thottiyam from where police recovered it. Manikandan was produced in court and remanded in judicial custody.