Auto driver plays good Samaritan

Chennai: For Chennai citizens who are fed up with negative stories of auto rickshaw drivers, their attitude to passengers and their exorbitant demands here is a story with a difference. This is a story of a good Samaritan in the form of an auto rickshaw driver who handed over to the police a bag containing 50 sovereigns gold and Rs 2.47 lakh in cash that he found had been abandoned under a tree near Perungalathur bus stand on Thursday morning. The driver was rewarded by senior police officials for his honesty.

On Thursday, the police handed over the bag to the owner Niloffer, 61, of Tiruchy.

She had left the bag behind while boarding an auto rickshaw from Perungalathur to Neelankarai on Wednesday late evening.  “She had two bags with her. After getting down from the bus, she got into  an auto rickshaw to go to her relative’s house in Neelankarai.

At that time she had forgotten to take the second bag, which was found by auto driver S. Kannan, 41, of New Perungalathur and handed over to Peerkankaranai police station,” the police said.

Niloffer too had lodged a complaint with the police and on verification it was found that the bag found by Kannan belonged to her.