CHENNAI: Like a scene straight out of a pot-boiler, the City Police team led by a Joint Commissioner stormed into the hideout of a notorious gangster ‘CD’ Mani aka Manikandan and arrested him with a country gun and bullets along with seven accomplices, in a covert operation, on Tuesday night. The gang was remanded to judicial custody.
Police said ‘CD’ Mani was involved in at least eight murder cases in the city.
Top brass of the City Police got the wind of Mani’s movement and stay on Tuedsay morning. City Police Commissioner S George directed Joint Commissioner A Arun to pursue the matter. The house in which the gangster was believed to be hiding was brought under surveillance since Tuesday afternoon. The police team waited till one of his aides went out and returned with packed dinner before storming into the house.
Efforts to nab Mani was stepped up after his involvement in a country bomb hurling incident in West Saidapet to ward off one Jagannathan, a building contractor and realtor, a couple of months ago.
Mani earned the moniker of ‘CD’ since he was selling pirate DVDs in Thomas Road in T Nagar. He took to violent crimes following a clash which broke out over sharing the booty gained in the piracy racket he started running. He killed a history sheeter — Venkatesan in 2007. He then took to another murder in Vadapalani in 2009. His list of murders swelled with the hits on Vazhaithoppu Sathish in 2010, Suresh in 2011, MGR Nagar Karthik and an AIADMK functionary in 2012.
Tech-savvy Mani had prior knowledge on being tracked by the cellphones. Therefore, it became a Herculean task for the cops to trace him. Besides, he has the habit of switching cars on the go.
“Mani switched to settle land deals as it turned out to be the most lucrative ones in the block. He was thriving with it and such forced land deals might be probed this time”, said a senior police official who was privy to the operation.