Chennai 2016: Crime map blinks, cops on toes

Chennai: The year 2016 witnessed murderous attacks on women including techie Swathi that sparked an outrage along with unearthing of large amounts of ill-gotten money by income tax investigators, the great train robbery and the tragic crash of an IAF aircraft in the Bay of Bengal.

Other cases that kept the men in khaki on their toes through the year 2016 included the hunt for Kancheepuram land mafioso settled in Dubai, elimination of Chennai Central train blast suspects in an encounter, depressing deaths of three college girls in a college in Villupuram, arrest of city art dealer for suspected idol smuggling, theft of high end SUVs, arrest of people who allegedly spread rumours in social networking site on the health of former CM, chasing Madhan of SRM group and ganja killing in city besides molestation in IIT.   

The crime map started blinking red in January when a security personnel molested an IIT student during Sarang, the annual cultural festival, inside the campus. The police swung into action by arresting the guard after the victim lodged a complaint. Within a week, the state woke up to the news about the death of three girl students of private native medicine institute. Their bodies were found in a farm well in Bangaram village in Villupuram.

Police made some arrests including the family members of the college owner based on suicide note and protest by students. In the third week of February, two suspects involved in the 2014 May Day twin blasts in Bengaluru–Guwahati train at Chennai Central station, which left a woman software professional killed, were nabbed in Rourkela, Odisha during a joint operation by Odisha and Telangana police. The two were later killed in an encounter after they escaped from a jail in Madhya Pradesh.

First week of June witnessed sleuths from idol wing police knocking the door of 84-year-old antique dealer Deenadayalan, for his suspected links in idol smuggling. Investigators during the course of probe found that he was linked to the infamous international idol smuggler Subash Kapoor, and recovered scores of idols and paintings from him.

Same month also saw some youngsters indulging in a grand theft auto scenario when they took away as many as seven SUVs from Hyundai yard in Manapakkam. Police, however, recovered all the vehicles in four days.

June also saw the most debated murder of the year – killing of Infosys techie Swathi at Nungambakkam railway station by a rejected lover, Ram Kumar. He was arrested in a week. Ramkumar later committed suicide in Puzhal jail by electrocuting himself in September.  

The month July saw police swinging into action after newspapers widely reported the sale of narco chocolates in north Chennai. In the same month IAF AN 32 crash occurred. The IAF flight, which took off from the Tambaram base, vanished above Bay of Bengal and all the 29 on board are believed to have died after the aircraft crashed into the sea.

August belonged to daring case of train robbery, in which unidentified persons stole cash Rs 5.78 crore, part of Rs 342 crore worth soiled notes, being transported from Salem to Chennai in Salem Express on Monday night, after making a hole on the roof of the hired parcel wagon. CB-CID is still probing the case.
Mid-August, a Kancheepuram court declared wanted Dubai-based land mafioso Sridhar Dhanapalan a proclaimed offender. This was followed by ED and police attaching more than Rs 150 crore worth of his properties.

During the last week of August, police arrested T R Pachamuthu, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre’s chairman and managing director in connection with a medical seat cheating scam worth '75 crore. His disowned aide Madhan was arrested.

In September, a 29-year-old call taxi driver, a BA English graduate, came out of jail after being arrested for allegedly threatening a woman passenger, became an owner of a brand new car. A Tamil writer cum blogger, who believed that the complaint of the woman was exaggerated and collected Rs 2.41 lakh from his followers after he told the story of the driver in his blog to help the youth to buy a car.

The city witnessed a shocking incident in which a national racing champion Vikash Anand, possibly under the influence of alcohol, crashed a high end Porsche on Cathedral Road in the early morning of September 19 killing one and injuring eight others.   

October was filled with police action against online rumour mongers on the health of then ailing CM J. Jayalalithaa. Though they could not nab Tamizachi – the France based Facebook account holder who was booked for spreading rumours – the police arrested many others in Tamil Nadu.

On Deepavali night, an ongoing turf war over pedaling ganja in the city left three persons dead in Kannagi Nagar after two groups clashed with each other. This incident forced the police to crack down against ganja sellers in the city and arrested nearly 100 peddlers during next 30 days.

While the TN police were keen on arresting Maoists in the past, the Kerala police on November 24 shocked the rights activists by killing two naxalites in an encounter in Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in Kerala.

The two Maoists killed on that day had their roots in Tamil Nadu. In a major cash seizure in Tamil Nadu after demonetisation, the income tax officials on December 8 and 9 seized Rs 131 crore cash – of which Rs 34 crore worth new Rs 2,000 notes, 177 kg gold from premises in Chennai and Vellore belonging to one Sekhar Reddy, a PWD contractor for sand mining in the state and his associates. This raid further led the IT sleuths to the house of former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao.