Chennai Cop chases accused with gun on busy road in the city

Cop chases accused with gun on busy road
Published Date: 6/21/2007  -  (NIE)

A Selvaraj

Chennai, June 20: The motorists on the busy MTH Road at Padi witnessed a scene similar to that of a Kollywood movie on Wednesday as they saw a police officer pulling out his gun and making an attempt to nab a fraudster, who jumped out of a car and escaped.


Acting on a tip-off that unidentified persons were defrauding people claiming that they had discovered treasure in the suburbs, a special team narrowed down on a gold coin treasure fraudsters at Teynampet.

In order to nab them, a senior police officer in ‘mufti’, posed as a customersand accompanied them in their car. When the car was nearing Padi, one of the culprits, who came to know about the decoy, jumped out of the car.

The officer chased the man with a gun, but he managed to escape.

However, the police detained a woman from Madhya Pradesh, an accomplice of the man who had escaped.

The police team attempted to trace the criminals after a person lost lakhs of rupees to a similar gang in Kodungaiyur, a few days ago.

Four murders: No clue since 1993

Four murders: No clue even after 14 yrs
Published Date: 6/25/2007  -  (NIE)

A SELVARAJ

Chennai, June 24: None of their relatives or friends is now here to recall the ghastly murder of a typewriting institute owner and his family at Aminjikarai on a rainy October night in 1993.


Perumal, who ran the institute, was staying in a portion of the same building on Poonamallee High Road with his wife Devika and two children aged 11 and 8. He was an instructor at a private typewriting institute, before starting a new one at Aminjikarai.

The murder came to light when the milkman found the family hacked to death at their house, the next morning. Rumours that the eyes of the children were plucked out, followed.

Even after 14 years of investigation, the mystery behind the murders is yet to be unravelled. Worse, the police station concerned does not even have the complete records of the case.

Officers, who probed the case, claimed that fingerprints, if any, were not trace able because it was raining on the night of the murder.

An officer, who is now an Assistant Commissioner, said that the investigation hit a road block as the probe team was not able to obtain any clue.

Brushing aside rumours of a possible organ trade, he said that the children had sustained injuries on their eyes due to a heavy blow on the back of their head.

According to him, ‘‘The assailants entered the house to rob, but were noticed and confronted by the couple.

The robbers then hit them with iron rods to stop them from raising an alarm.'' A highly-placed source in the Commissionerate said, ‘‘Weeks before the murder, the victim's students witnessed a clash between Perumal and a group of persons from his native village near Vandavasi.''

However, another senior police officer said, ‘‘Initial inquiries revealed that the murders were not committed for gain, but due to previous enmity with some local politicians.

As an investigating officer, I had some doubts regarding the case which could not be clarified till the end of my period.'' He added that there was tremendous pressure from the local politicians to go slow in the investigation.

And there is not even a single tenant in the building or a neighbour who knows about the murder.

All that they know is based on hearsay.

Even the relatives of the murder victims had returned to their native places after the incident.

The Aminjikarai police station does not even have the case record.

Said a middle-level police officer: ‘‘The case diary was entrusted with an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who never returned it.'' None of the police personnel, now at Aminjikarai, know the details of the case.

However, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) is dusting old files, hoping to make some headway in unsolved cases. But no one knows for sure if something concrete will emerge.