CHENNAI : When a city-based builder launched a free pick up-and-drop facility for its customers, he never imagined that it would get a bill for about Rs 94,000 just for one customer who wanted to visit the sites. The police have now arrested the ‘smart customer’ U Sreedhar of Royapuram who had learnt that all he needed to get a free ride in ‘Fast Track’ call taxi was to use a code meant for the customers of builder Casa Grand.
While he was literally on a touring spree in the city for the last two months using the free services, he landed in trouble when he tried to stretch it a little far by asking for a free trip to Kodaikanal which made the call taxi officials a little suspicious.
Police officers explained that Sreedhar, when he was once visiting a construction site with his friends, first learnt about the arrangement between Casa Grand and Fast Track that the latter would offer free services to any customer who wants to visit any of the builder’s project sites. “The customers are normally provided with a code which they have to give to the call taxi driver who would take the customers to the sites and they won’t be charged,” said a police officer.
Similarly, Sreedhar was provided with the code ‘1655’ y the call taxi driver who told him he could call anytime using the same code to visit the other sites.“Taking advantage of this, Sreedhar called the call taxi company posing as a customer of the builders and used the cars to roam in the city for over two months. The drivers never questioned Sreedhar, believing him to be a customer. Recently, he had taken the car to Kodaikanal and when the call taxi company checked they found it suspicious as the builders did not have any construction site at Kodaikanal,” said the officer.
During investigation it was found that Sreedhar, had used the car and the bill amount was ` 93,794 which the builders had to pay to the call taxi company. Gopi Krishnan, the manager of the call taxi firm, lodged a complaint with police who arrested Sreedhar.Police said Sreedhar was unemployed and was simply enjoying the free rides by posing as a customer of the builder.
4 surrender before court in murder case
Chennai:Four persons surrendered before a Madurantakam court on Friday in connection with the alleged killing of a man aged 22, due to previous enmity. Ajit (22) of Alar village, Ponneri worked as a daily wager. Recently, he had a fight with his friend Jawahar. He is said to have told his friend that he would hire henchmen to kill Jawahar, police said. Learning about this, Jawahar and his friends took Ajit for a drink and allegedly beat him to death near Ponneri railway station and dumped his body in a subway and escaped, said a police source. Jawahar, Rajesh, Bharath and Surya surrendered before the court on Friday.