TIRUCHY: In a dramatic incident, five persons got onto a moving lorry carrying Tasmac liquor and managed to get away with as many as 725 bottles. All the five were arrested on Thursday and the police recovered 103 bottles and Rs 1.4 lakh in cash from them.
On January 22, M Selvam (36) of Chengalpattu district, was driving the lorry loaded with the liquor bottles from Madhurantakam to a Tasmac godown in Sivaganga. In between, he briefly stopped near a toll plaza. When he was about to the restart the vehicle, he reportedly noticed the tarpaulin covering the cargo area of the lorry torn. On checking, he found 36 cartons containing 725 liquor bottles missing. Following this, he lodged a complaint with the Samayapuram police.
Based on the orders of Central Zone Inspector General V Balakrishnan, two special teams of police were formed to investigate the case. The team combed CCTV footage along the Tiruchy - Chennai NH and narrowed down on five suspects, who were identified as Kodiswaran (47) of Gummidipoondi, Palanisamy (40) of Keeranur, Thangapandi (24), Dinesh (35), and Giri (41) of Chennai.
On questioning, they allegedly confessed to committed the crime. Their narrative, according to the police, was that they used two vehicles to execute their plan -- one on the front of the lorry to distract the driver, and another on the rear end of the lorry, from where they jumped onto the lorry and tore the tarpaulin to steal liquor bottles.
Later, the police recovered as many as 103 liquor bottles and Rs 1.4 lakh in cash from them. All the five accused were produced before court and lodged in Tiruchy Central Prison. Central Zone Inspector General V Balakrishnan and Tiruchy range DIG Saravana Sundar appreciated the special teams for nabbing the miscreants in a short period of time.