CHENNAI/TIRUNELVELI: Are the gangs of Tirunelveli district graduating from the traditional veecharuval (a type of sickle) to country-made guns? Appears so, going by the arrest of a gun-maker in Sankarankoil and the seizure of 15 guns over the last 10 months.
Gun maker Nadarajan (72), a carpenter by profession, had been fabricating firearms and ammunition at his lathe for the past five years with expert advice from ex-serviceman Veeraperumal alias Joseph (57) from Thoothukudi.
A Tirunelveli police team raided his unit and seized three guns, two live bullets, 16 empty bullets and more than 100 special knives. Besides fabricating 10 guns, Nadarajan had been manufacturing special knives that are tied to the legs of roosters that fight it out in a game that involves large-scale gambling. Rooster fight is a banned sport in Tamil Nadu.
Police zeroed in on Nadarajan after Joseph and his nephew Viral Kanthan were caught with a gun on Saturday at Sankarankoil, according to Asra Garg, Tirunelveli SP. Viral Kanthan had shot dead his brother a year ago, Garg said.
Nadarajan, who used iron tubes of pesticide sprayers to fabricate the bullets, had supplied guns to rowdy Muthu, whose gang members hacked Ayappan last month,’’ said Garg. Besides Nadarajan, there are other gun makers in Sankarankoil, Ambasamuthiram and Kallakadu in Tirunelveli district.Garg said rowdies and gangsters were now opting for the gun in place of the old veechuaruval. Giving examples, he said police seized a pistol from a criminal, Sundaram, who was involved in the killing of another rowdy Madan and two others a few months ago. Parthiban Raj, now in jail, is also said to own a gun.
Guns are supplied to people in other places too, through the network of rowdies, operating from the Palayamkottai jail, dispelling the myth that all illegal firearms in TN had been smuggled from states like Bihar.
Incidentally, when police raided Nadarajan’s unit, they also found a “dangerous” umbrella he had designed for himself. He had fabricated the umbrella with a knife attached to it. The knife emerges when the umbrella is unfolded.