Chennai: A 37-year-old man with over ten robbery cases against him in Tamil Nadu, neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra was arrested here today and 120 sovereigns of jewellery were recovered from him.  G Ashok alias Ashok Kumar was arrested from his hideout at Vadapalani here, police said.  He was allegedly involved in several cases of stealing valuables in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai besides several other towns across the three states.

His modus operandi was to divert the attention of those with cash or jewellery by using simple tricks. On August 26 this year, he stole 120 sovereigns of jewellery here from one M Murugesan when the latter was heading home in his car after taking out jewels from a bank locker.

He told Murugesan that his car tyre was punctured.  When he got down from the car, an accomplice of Ashok sought directions to a locality and during this time, the jewellery was taken out of the car.

Probe is continuing and efforts are on to apprehend Ashok's other accomplices, police added.