CHENNAI: Six people were arrested by the Harbour police on charges of stealing a container from the Chennai Port using forged documents. The consignment had 5,230 computer tablets worth Rs 35 crore. An employee from one of the cargo companies provided the forged documents to the group, police said.
The arrested were identified as T Muthuraj (46), K Rajesh (39), N Napoleon (46), A Sivabalan (44), S Paulraj (31), and G Manikandan (31). The police said that Ilavarasan, an employee of the cargo company through which the container carrying the tablets was brought to Chennai on September 7, had forged a document and gave it to Manikandan. Using the document, the group took away the container from the port.
On September 11, when the people who had imported the tablets came to get them, they found the container missing. The cargo company then lodged a police complaint based on which a case was registered. The police tracked the consignment to Tiruvallur using the GPS location provided by the manufacturer of the tablets and nabbed the gang.
Of the stolen 5,230 tablets, police recovered 5,207. A search is on to trace and nab three other men involved. Based on the information provided by the arrested men, a police team has been sent to Dindigul to track another lorry which could contain some of the stolen goods, the police said. The six arrested were remanded in judicial custody on Friday.