Police stop minor wedding

CHENNAI:  Thanks to the alertness of the men in khaki, a minor girl’s wedding that was scheduled to take place at Pattabiram on Wednesday, was cancelled. Instead, the function turned into an engagement party.Sources said a marriage was fixed between R Kannan (26), of Choolaimedu and employee in a private company, and a 17-year-old girl of Pattabiram. The wedding was scheduled to be held at a hall in Pattabiram on Wednesday morning and the reception the previous evening.Meanwhile, the Pattabiram police received a tip-off about the minor’s girl marriage and a special team led by Inspector Sundar and Childline volunteers rushed to the hall. On perusing the birth certificate of the bride, they found that she was a minor and advised her parents to cancel the marriage as it was illegal. Hence, the parents of the bride and the groom cancelled the wedding and converted the reception into an engagement party, the sources said.5 Andhra Women HeldFive women from Andhra Pradesh have been arrested in connection with the theft of gold jewellery from women devotees participating in the Kumbabishekam of a temple in Red Hills on April 6. The women had noticed the loss of their gold ornaments when they came to participate in the Kumbabishekam of Sri Lakshmi Amman temple in Red Hills and lodged a complaint at the local police station. A special police team under Inspector Velmurugan was set up and enquiries revealed that the theft was the handiwork of a women’s gang in Chittoor district.On Monday, the special team arrested Sharadha (30), Kavitha (28), Krishnaveni (30), Abhirami (22) and Gayatri (27) from the area and recovered about 60 sovereigns of gold ornaments. They were produced before the Ponneri court on Tuesday and remanded to judicial custody.Gold, Cash StolenBurglars decamped with 15 sovereigns of gold jewellery and `50,000 cash from the house of a mechanic at Thirumullaivoyal.Sources said that Babu (47), of Iyyapakkam, went to sleep in the terrace along with his wife Kalaivani (40) and children Loganathan (17) and Lokeswari (15) due to power failure. When they came down on Wednesday morning, they found the front door lock was broken and cash and valuables were  missing. Babu lodged a complaint at the Thirumullaivoyal police station.In another incident, 12 cell phones were stolen in separate incidents from residents, who were asleep on the terrace at Mumurthy Nagar in Chromepet. Besides the phone, five sovereign of gold jewellery and `5,000 in cash were also stolen.