Cops rescue unattended accident victim carrying gold worth Rs 1.5 cr

CHENNAI: A city Inspector on his way to duty rescued a road accident victim near Padi flyover on Monday evening and later found out he was carrying Rs 1.5 crore worth gold jewellery.

Maduravoyal Inspector, A Siva Ananth, told DT Next, that he was on his way to the station when he noticed a crowd around 6 pm. A middle-aged man was found face down near a bike.

“When I turned the face, there was blood and I realised he had to be taken to a hospital immediately. Though the public had call for an ambulance, it had not reached the scene. I tried flagging some vehicles, but they did not cooperate. Then, a load van driver accepted to transport the victim,” said the Inspector.

The victim’s belongings were handed over to the constable who went as a pilot vehicle in front of the load van. Siva travelled with the victim in the van and admitted him to KHM hospital in Anna Nagar.

“While admitting him, we didn’t know his name. Then, we started calling contacts from his phone and informed a relative,” Siva recalled. Only after ensuring that the victim, Hariharan (55) was safe, police checked the belongings and found his bag had packets of jewellery.

“At first, I assumed it to be imitation jewellery,” Siva said. “Then I realised it was genuine gold jewellery – about 2.75 kg and there were proper bills too.”

Hariharan was working with a jewellery store in West Mambalam and had travelled to Puzhal to buy jewellery from a goldsmith, investigations revealed.

Senior police officers were informed of the unfolding of events. After verifying the authenticity of the bills, the jewels were handed over to the jewellery store owner, Kathiravan.

Commissioner Shankar Jiwal appreciated the Inspector and the constable Deepan Chakravarthy for their timely action in saving a life.