Date:20/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/20/stories/2006072017700300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Woman's chain snatched, police sceptical

Staff Reporter

Victim asked whether she was trying to file a false complaint

CHENNAI: A woman who approached the police to complain that her chain had been snatched on Tuesday evening was asked whether she had given it to a friend and was trying to file a false complaint.

The victim, M. Malathi (25), who was returning home from office on a two-wheeler, was hit by another two-wheeler on GNT Road at Kodungaiyur as she was passing the Moolakadai junction around 7 p.m. While Malathi was trying to regain her balance, the men on the two-wheeler that hit her snatched her chain weighing six-and-a-half sovereigns and escaped. She said there were no lights at the spot.

At the Kodungaiyur police station, the policemen reportedly asked her whether she had given the jewellery to a friend and was trying to file a false complaint. They told her that no such incident could have taken place at the busy GNT Road. They refused to register a first information report, she said.

It was only when Ms. Malathi's employer, R. Jaffar Khan, went to the police station and insisted that the authorities register the complaint, was a case of snatching registered.

Ms. Malathi said she went to the Kodungaiyur police station around 7.30 p.m., and a case was finally registered at 11 p.m.