CHENNAI: Two years ago, M Rangaraj (60), who was working as a superintendent in Food Corporation of India, had seen a chain snatcher remove a gold chain from a young woman’s neck and escape on his two-wheeler in Nungambakkam. On Sunday, he and his wife, M Pushparani, an office assistant at Dr Ambedkar Law College, experienced it first-hand, when chain snatchers struck at the Chetpet railway station. The couple, however, put up a spirited fight and the chain snatcher ran away with tail between his legs. Rangaraj told Express that he and his wife left their house on Karugathamman Koil Street in Chetpet around 6.30 pm to attend a marriage reception in Royapuram. Returning two hours later, they disembarked from a local train at the Chetpet railway station and were climbing down the steps. “My wife was walking a few steps ahead of me and I saw a stranger overtaking me and go near her,” he said.The youth tried to snatch Pushparani’s eight-sovereign gold chain and flee. But showing presence of mind, she held to the ornament tightly, gave the chain snatcher a strong whack with her umbrella and raised an alarm. The frightened man took to his heels and Rangaraj began chasing him, thinking that he was running away with the chain. The chase ended after the retired Food Corporation of India officer saw the man disappearing inside a Dasapuram colony.While Rangaraj was a relieved man when he saw the gold chain still around his wife’s neck, he rued the fact that passers-by failed to come to his aid, despite his appeal for help. He went to the Chetpet police station to file a complaint, but the personnel directed him to the Kilpauk police station citing jurisdiction. “At the Kilpauk station on Monday, the police personnel asked me to come in the evening, saying the premises was inundated by rain water,” he said.
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