25-yr-old woman nabbed for conning hostel inmates

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/25-yr-old-woman-nabbed-conning-hostel-inmates-668

July 19: The Chennai suburban police arrested a 25-year-old woman in Avadi on Monday for stealing jewellery and other valuables from hostels across the city. The woman, Renuka Maithili alias Nurjahan alias Thamil Selvi of Annamalaiar Nagar Third Street in Avadi, used to sell the stolen goods through her lover, Anand, who was also arrested.

Police was acting on a complaint lodged by Mrs. Muthu Karthika, a software engineer and an inmate of a women’s hostel at Sai Ram Nagar in Medavakkam, on the theft of gold jewellery, camera and mobile phone from her room. She had alleged that a woman staying in the neighbouring room befriended her and offered her body massage. After the massage, when she was taking bath, the woman had vanished with her valuables, she added.

Police registered a case and formed a special team to nab the woman. Acting on a tip-off, the special team arrested Renuka. When grilled by the police, she confessed that she had conned Karthika. “She confessed that she had stolen from many women’s hostels across the city by employing the same method,” said a police officer. Renuka had sold the stolen jewellery and goods through her lover, R.Anand, 24, a resident of Sathyamurthy Nagar in Avadi.

The conwoman had left her husband about five years ago and was running a matrimonial agency at Kottivakkam. She also worked with the customer care centre of a private mobile phone operator. “Renuka would take rooms in women’s hostels in the city and the suburban areas on the pretext of attending an interview,” said a police officer. “She would later offer body massage to the inmates of neighbouring rooms. After the massage, when the victims are taking bath, she would escape with their valuables, the officer added.