Gangsters’ party: Cops hunt for land owner

Velu, a resident of Mettukuppam in Maduravoyil who owned the shed, has cases of red sanders smuggling in Coimbatore, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.  On the face of it, Velu was running the facility for dismantling, assembling and modifying vehicles as per customers’ need. 

However, police suspect Velu of being the facilitator for red sanders smugglers, assisting them in bringing the wood from Andhra Pradesh and conceal it in modified vehicles to be smuggled out through various ports.   

The shed was built on a land encroached by Devarajan, who had been detained by the police. He had leased the land to Velu, who used the premises to run his transportation business. Police suspect that Velu had the help of one of his women friends from Padikuppam, along with her two sons, in stealing vehicles and changing the registration numbers using fake documents.Velu had established contacts with history-sheeters like Binu to ensure that the operation went smoothly. 

“All those history-sheeters were familiar with the venue because many of them had worked for Velu as well,” police sources noted. 

Following information they obtained from a history-sheeter in custody, a special team of police secured an aide of gangster Binu, who was hiding in a house in Pattukottai in Thanjavur. 

According to sources, Tamil Selvan (28) from Pattukottai was secured when Chennai police gatecrashed Binu’s birthday party. During interrogation, he confessed that his brother Vicky was providing shelter for Binu’s close aide Mukesh (22) of Choolaimedu. Mukesh is said to be one of the close aides who protected Binu until he escaped during the police crackdown. 

Following this, a special team rushed there and secured both Mukesh and Vicky and brought them to Chennai for detailed  interrogation.