Auto driver helps nab ganja smuggler

Driver B Raja (37) was waiting for prospective passengers at Chennai Central around 2.30 am when a man and a woman approached him with gunny bags. They wanted to hire his auto to reach Egmore railway station. After negotiating the fare, they got into the vehicles. 

By the time he took a U-turn near Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Raja said he could get the scent of ganja from the bags. However, without asking them anything about it, Raja continued to ride even as he kept looking out for police. When he passed by the Park railway station, he saw a police vehicle and stopped the autorickshaw. He got off in the guise of having a casual chat with a policeman. 

As Raja was speaking to special sub-inspector Krishnamoorthy, the passengers realised that they were in trouble. They got off the vehicle and started running away. The police personnel chased and caught hold of the woman but the man managed to escape. When they checked the sacks, they found ganja packed in bundles, each roughly weighing 2.5 kg. 

The police said the accused, M Selvi (40) of Vedachandur, was involved in ganja peddling for over nine years along with another woman Kachammal in their hometown. Both have cases pending against them. 

In the recent past, to manage the business on her own, she was sourcing ganja from Rajamundri in Andhra Pradesh in bulk, which was distributed to small-time peddlers. 

Her accomplice was identified as Balamurugan, to whom Selvi paid Rs 5,000 for each trip to bring ganja from Vijayawada to Vedachandur. Their plan was to board a train from the Egmore railway station to their hometown.

The City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan rewarded the auto driver and the police officers Special Sub-Inspector Krishnamoorthy, Inspector Sivarajan and Home Guard Muthuraja for their swift action to nab the smuggler.