Lawyer, Ex-convict held in vehicle theft racket in Chennai

CHENNAI: Five people including a Madurai-based advocate and a person who was convicted in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case were arrested by Chennai Police for allegedly running a racket of stealing load vans and trucks.

The arrested persons were identified as Austin (49) of Kanyakumari, Damodaran (56) of Pulianthope, Dhanagopal and Jayaraj (58) of Madurai and Shahul Hameed of Coimbatore.

On December 21, Karthikeyan of Kallakurichi had come to Chennai and unloaded at Parrys.

He had then parked the load van at Manickam street in Ayanavaram and went to stay at a relative's house.

The next day, the load van went missing after which he filed a police complaint.

Based on CCTV footage, police zeroed in on the suspects. Investigations revealed that Damodharan and Austin forge keys of load vans and stole the vehicles, which are then taken to other districts and sold.

Inquiries revealed that Austin was involved in stealing vehicles targeting carrier goods vehicles in Kanyakumari and surrounding districts and has more than 35 cases against him across the state.

Austin and Damodharan led police to the other accused.

Dhanagopal is practising as an advocate in Madurai while Shahul Hameed was released after serving 13 years in prison in connection with the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blast case.

Five vehicles were recovered from them.

All accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded to custody.