Month after stealing 5,230 laptops from Chennai port, kingpin of heist in custody
5,230 Dell laptops reached city on Sept 7, what followed was a heist and a series of arrests
(L-R K Ilavarasan, The stolen container with 5,230 laptops
CHENNAI: He had a day’s advantage until someone took note of the missing container from China with Dell Notebook laptops worth Rs 35 crore. But, unable to strike a deal with potential buyers, the mastermind went into hiding while the motley crew he assembled was caught in the police net, and most of the laptops were recovered on September 20, within ten days of the theft.
On Saturday, almost a month after the unsuccessful heist, a team headed by Harbour Inspector (Crime) S Silambu Selvan arrested the mastermind, K Ilavarasan (38), a former staff of Chennai International Terminal Private Limited (CITPL), which handles container loading and unloading at Chennai port.
“He has no criminal antecedents. He had planned to strike once and strike big and move abroad with the money,” a police officer said.
The stolen container with 5230 laptops was part of a consignment that reached the Chennai port from China on September 7 and was kept in the yard.
The freight forwarding company’s trailer reached the yard on September 11 to pick up the consignment only to find it missing.
Port documents revealed that the container had left the port in the early hours of September 10.
Harbour Police registered a case based on a complaint from P Pon Esakkiyappan, Operations Manager-CITPL and launched a search for Ilavarasan and the stolen container. Perusing the CCTV footage, the police teams traced the container to Manavalan Nagar in neighbouring Tiruvallur district.
“The gang had shifted the items in the original 40-feet container to two 20-feet container trucks. They were ready to pay over Rs 1 lakh per truck for the trip to Bengaluru,” said a police officer.
T Muthuraj (46) of Dinidgul, K Rajesh (39), N Napoleon (46), A Sivabalan (44) — all three of Tiruvottiyur, and S Palraj (31), G Manikandan (31) — both from Tiruvallur district were arrested and 5207 laptops were recovered.
Police investigations revealed that Ilavarasan had prepared all necessary documents using the login credentials of a senior official in the company and facilitated the exit of the container from the port.
He had sought the help of a MTC driver to arrange for a container trailer to take the laptop consignment out of the port. Police had arrested the driver, Sankaran (56) of Tondiarpet, on September 28. Ilavarasan’s nephew, V Chinnasamy (29), who was his partner in crime, was arrested by the police last week.
According to a police officer, teams camped in Bengaluru and Mumbai to trail Ilavarasan, but he went into hiding after dumping the mobile phone he was using. After learning about the new mobile device he was using, a police team tracked Ilavarasan and arrested him near Tambaram.
“He had run out of money and had come to the city to get some cash from his friends and family,” according to a police officer.
