Late don Sridhar’s lieutenant Dinesh, 19 other history-sheeters held in Goa

Inquiries revealed that they developed a network with dreaded offenders in different districts such as Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Chennai to extort businessmen, using threats.

Dinesh and Thyagu, who had been arrested by Sivakanchi police in December last in connection with a murder case, were detained under the Goondas Act. They were released from prison in June and had been absconding since then.

Meanwhile, after many businessmen in Kancheepuram complained that they have been getting threat and extortion phone calls from Dinesh’s men, two special teams were formed as per the instructions of DIG B Shamoondeshwari.

The special teams received information that Dinesh and Thyagu were camping in Calangute in North Goa with a few others to celebrate the former’s birthday and that they have been making threat calls from there. While the birthday party was held on Friday, a team rushed to Goa and surrounded the resort where the accused were staying in on Saturday. The gang was secured at gunpoint and brought to Kancheepuram.

Among the arrested, M Surendar (37) of Chidambaram is a wanted offender in Cuddalore district with 20 cases pending against him, including four murders while S Sethupathi (26) of Red Hills and M Sugeshwaran (30) of Red Hills have about 10 cases pending against each. The other accused, Arumugam (31) of Delhi, is Dinesh’s gang member and reached Goa directly, said police.

The others were identified as Manimaran, Raja, V Arunkumar, V Manikandan, R Arunkumar, Thulasiraman, Gopi, Gandhi, Rajesh, Prasanth, Vighnesh, Sathishkumar and D Manikandan and Karthik.

Dinesh, who was late don Sridhar Dhanapal’s car driver, decided to take over his position after the latter committed suicide in Cambodia, and teamed up with history-sheeter Thaygu alias Thyagarajan. They often clashed with a rival group led by Sridhar Dhanapal’s kin Thaniga alias Thanikachalam.