Five held for Rs 60 Lakh worth chemicals robbery in city
Probe revealed that the transporter brought the containers to a godown where they siphoned the chemicals
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-02-22 05:00 GMT
Chennai: Five persons were arrested by the city police on Saturday for stealing chemicals from sealed containers meant for export to America and African countries. Two persons from the logistics company in whose trucks the chemicals were transported, connived with a godown owner to siphon the chemicals, the police said. The value of the stolen chemical goods is about Rs 60 lakh.
The freight handler, M. Dhanasekaran (43), running Sea Bird Transport in Parry’s Corner, approached city police after his clients complained to him that there was a difference in the mass of ordered and delivered chemicals. “About 45 tonnes of magnesium, ferro silicon and 75 innoculants were stolen from a set of 11 containers transported from Puducherry.
The containers were sealed in the presence of customs officials there,” according to the complaint. Dhanasekaran had brought in the consignment and shipped them to his clients in USA, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa about three months ago. On their arrival, the mass was found to be less, after which the clients contacted him through email. Police investigations revealed that he had sought the services of two companies, Dream Road Lines and Nithya Sai Transport, to have the containers ferried to Chennai port from Puducherry.
Investigations revealed that both the transporters conspired and brought the containers to a private godown off Grand Northern Trunk (GNT) road near Manali. There, godown owner Murugan, his son Muthumani and son-in-law Muthu along with the transporters, S. Babu (39), N. Balaji (27) and L. Mohanraj (35), removed the seals without tampering them and siphoned off the chemicals.
Truck driver David Peter (40) of Manali spilled the beans during police investigations after which the Manali police arrested those involved in the theft. Godown owner Murugan and his son-in-law have eluded arrest and a special team has been formed to arrest them. The stolen chemicals were also confiscated from the godown.