Biker gangs mug at will, unnerve once-secure Chennai

CHENNAI: Gangs of robbers on motorcycles are terrorising the city, with three muggings since Saturday, and have put the city police under serious pressure.

Senior officers formed a special police team to tackle the issue but, with few clues, investigators are yet to make a breakthrough.

Two thugs on a motorcycle pushed a 40-year-old software engineer Sudarshan, his wife Nagalakshmi and daughter Abanisha from a moving bike and snatched Nagalakshmi’s handbag in Thiruvanmiyur on Saturday.

Three men on a motorbike attacked entrepreneur R Vanaja with knives and robbed her less than a day later, on Sunday night, in Tiruverkadu as she was heading home on a scooter. The goons stabbed her with knives when she refused to part with her valuables.

Two robbers on Monday snatched a cellphone from a woman Kina, 32, when she was riding pillion on her husband Akash Jain’s motorcycle in Choolai. Jain, 36, is a financier. Police tracked down Balaji of Perungudi, the owner of the motorbike the robbers used, but found that thieves had stolen it from him a week earlier.

An investigating officer said in the first two muggings, the robbers attacked people who refused hand over their valuables — a pointer that gang or gangs involved in the motorcycle muggings are armed and will not hesitate to use violence.

“The culprits appear to be targeting vulnerable people, including women, and are choosing deserted stretches to carry out their crimes,” the officer said.

Another officer said the city police had solved four cases of robbery in 10 days with the arrest of 11 people, but admitted that they are yet to apprehend the motorcycle muggers.

Investigators have prepared profiles of the perpetrators based on details from the people they robbed. Police said in most cases the people robbed panicked and failed to note down the registration number of the robbers’ motorcycles or even get a good look at the culprits.

“We are trying to make portraits of the suspects with Auto-Cad in the police control room,” a third officer said. “Trained policemen are attempting to recreate the faces of the robbers with descriptions from the victims. The suspects all appeared to be in their 30s and were well-built.”

Investigators, he said, are trying to formulate a strategy to arrest the robbers. “Most of them use stolen bikes so it becomes hard to track them down,” the officer said. “Policemen have intensified vehicle checks across the city.”

A few months ago, a notorious gangster ‘Neeravi’ (literally ‘Water Vapour’) Murugan, wielding a machete, mugged a woman on a scooter in Thoraipakkam and escaped with her gold jewellery. A video clip made by a resident went viral on WhatsApp and showed how brutal robbers in the city can be. A police team from the city nabbed Murugan from a hideout in Tirunelveli a month after the robbery.

Biker gangs mug at will, unnerve once-secure Chennai