THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: IN a joint operation by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu police, vehicle lifter Bombay Manikandan and his gang were nabbed from Coimbatore. Manikandan who had allegedly stolen over 200 lorries parked on the wayside from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa were arrested from Karamadai police station limits of Coimbatore.
According to the police, the Thiruvananthapuram Rural Shadow police which investigated the lorry thefts at Akkulam and Mangalapuram zeroed in on Manikandan. They found Manikandan’s gang was behind most of lorry jacking cases.
In the detailed interrogation led by Attingal SP R Adithya, the accused have admitted to jacking a Maruti car owned by Shahul Hameed from the Fort police station limits in April 2016 and affixing fake number on it. He had used the vehicle to travel to many places to identify the lorries to be stolen.
Manikandan admitted he had stolen the tipper lorry of Siyaj of Kulathoor, parked at Mangalapuram; tipper lorry of Prakash of Karikkakam, Taurus lorry of Sunil kumar of Olloor, Thrissur. All the stolen vehicles were brought to Tamil Nadu by Michael, an Odisha native who avoided all toll booths and checkpost to reach Tamil Nadu.
Palani, one of the linkmen, was nabbed on Friday morning while trying to hide the stolen lorry in a hideout in Kerala. Manikandan, who had been nabbed by Tamil Nadu police four years ago by firing below the knee, has assets worth crores of rupees at Thakkala in Kanyakumari, distirct, Thenkashi, and Mumbai. The house at Thakkala is priced at `4 crore.
Police chief issues warning
T’Puram: State police chief T P Senkumar has advised the public to be cautious on the interstate theft gangs. Senkumar said the public should stay alert against the thieves from various Thiruttu Gramams (Villages of thieves) in Tamil Nadu. The DGP has alerted during the rainy season several gangs are targeting houses in the state.
The police have collected details of around 2,200 gangs who frequent to the state for committing thefts. The details were collected by the Kottayam district police chief N Ramachandran. The DGP has directed all the district police chiefs to stay alert and take immediate steps to counter such thefts. Senkumar also sought support from the public to prevent any thefts in future.