Rs 18L stolen from Paranur toll plaza during clash

Officials said they suspect that the intruder could be working at the toll plaza or from some other plaza, as he correctly spotted the place where the money was kept without much hassle.

On Saturday night, the staff at the Paranur toll plaza had asked the SETC bus to pay the toll fare. But State Transport officials are not ready to pay the toll through the recently installed FASTag system and had been asking free passage, while the National Highways Authority of India officials had been insisting on the payment.

The face-off the toll staff and government bus crew turned nasty after the driver parked the bus horizontally in the toll booth and began to argue with the staff. Soon, other drivers and public gathered there and began to attack the booth, and damaged the equipment there.

On Monday, the toll plaza manager Vijay Babu (40) filed a complaint with the Chengalpattu Taluk police that Rs 18 lakh kept in his room was missing. Though the hard drives on which the CCTV footages were saved were damaged during the incident. When the footages from the hard drive were recovered on Tuesday, the police found one masked man entering the cabin and damaging the computers and walking out with the money.

The Chengalpattu Taluk police are trying to trace the man.