Fearing parents, drunk man tries to get back confiscated bike, ‘steals’ cop’s vehicle

It all happened on November 25 when M Arunraj, a resident of Perungalathur was stopped for drunken driving by Guindy traffic police. After seizing the vehicle, police had kept his bike in the Guindy police station premises for the night.

Arunraj, however, decided to take back his vehicle from the station using a spare key. “When he reached there, Arun found a Bajaj Pulsar bike, which was similar to his, parked at the station. It actually belonged to a cop. However, Arun mistook it for his own bike and decided to take it home,” a police officer said. While driving the bike, he hit a pothole and the two-wheeler got damaged. When he later took it to the mechanic, he noticed it was a Puducherry-registered vehicle. “When the mechanic asked for the registration details, Arunraj realised that the bike wasn’t his,” the officer said.

To cover up his mistake, he prepared two number plates bearing the number of his bike and affixed them on the stolen bike. Later, he parked it at Tambaram railway station. It all came to light when policeman Arunkumar, whose bike was stolen, reached the Guindy police station next morning to take his two-wheeler. “He found his bike missing from the station premises. So the police checked the CCTV footage and found Arunraj taking the policeman’s bike away,” the officer said. Upon checking with the traffic police, Guindy police found that the man in the CCTV was booked for drunken driving on the previous night and his bike – which looked similar to that of the policeman - was parked in the station premise.

A team rushed to Arunraj’s home but he initially tried to deny the entire episode. When he was told that the CCTV footage was available with the investigators, Arun confessed to the crime and was arrested.