CHENNAI: In what looked like a neat lift out of an action movie, the city police in an eight-hour operation stormed into a birthday bash organised at a mechanised shop for a notorious rowdy Binu of Choolaimedu by his armed minions and rounded up 75 goons on the Vandalur-Minjur Outer Ring Road on Tuesday night.
“We got a tip-off around 6 pm and quickly put together a special team of over 50 policemen, all in their civvies. The team hired a private vehicle and put up flags of different colours to give an impression that we were attending a function. On reaching the locality, we dispersed to track the party-goers. Initially, we expected 30 to 40, but actually around 80 to 100 turned up,” said a senior police officer who was part of the investigation team.
“During the celebration, a few of them spotted us and used their code word ‘Thadi’ (police) to alert the rest before trying to flee. We overpowered a few,” he added. In the melee, a few others, including Binu, escaped.
The team then alerted the Kundrathur, Porur, SRMC, Poonamallee, Mangadu and Nazarathpettai police stations. A vehicle check was conducted and cops lying in wait between the bushes near the Chemmanchery lake caught some escapees.
It all started when a team from the Anti-Gangster Squad got a tip-off that history-sheeter ‘Pall’ Mohan was hiding at Pallikaranai.
The team reportedly nabbed him from his hideout and during interrogation, he revealed that he was heading to attend the birthday function of Binu. He claimed around 75-80 history-sheeters would participate in the birthday bash.
Chennai City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan instructed senior police officers to form a special team to nab the rowdies. During the operation, the police seized 15 motorbikes, seven cars and 88 mobile phones.
Binu has several cases pending against him, including murder. “Most of the other men have at least a couple of criminal cases pending against them. Five of them, including Binu, were facing murder charges,” he said.
Further interrogations are on. Police have launched a search for the escapees. ‘Pall’ Mohan, who was arrested on Tuesday, had been involved in a murder case registered in the Teynampet police station.