Coimbatore : The midnight drama that lasted until the early hours of today kept the City awake after people captured a 20-feet long truck suspecting to be loaded with cash to be distributed for votes near Aathupaalam. The truck was captured around 10 pm near Aathupaalam by the public who alerted the election flying squad.
Coimbatore : The midnight drama that lasted until the early hours of today kept the City awake after people captured a 20-feet long truck suspecting to be loaded with cash to be distributed for votes near Aathupaalam. The truck was captured around 10 pm near Aathupaalam by the public who alerted the election flying squad.
The 'suspicious' truck which is presently parked at the District Collectorate is expected to be unloaded by 10 am in the presence of District Collector by the officials from election flying squad. Security has been beefed up at the Collectorate.
After the public captured the truck, the Aathupalam to Ukkadam and Palakkad roads were completely blocked as more people thronged the area. Deputy Commissioner (law & order) Balaji Saravanan rushed to the spot and advised the people to disperse.
While the truck driver claimed that the truck contains tea powder, the people disagreed and took control of the truck.
Not only did the crowd stayed put but also more public from various parts of the city thronged the Aathupalam area. Suspecting a possibility of law and order disruption, the DC along with the electoral officers promised the public that they would open the container in the presence of public and media at the District Collectorate.
The container was later drove to the Collectorate at midnight. The officials then opened the container in which several tightly packed bundles of tea packets were found. As the container was packed with many such bundles, the officials were unable to unpack the entire lot to verify if it was tea or cash. The public and DMK cadres got into a scuffle with the officials demanding to unload the entire truck and conduct a thorough check.
The officials then promised to check the entire vehicle on Tuesday morning, as unloading the whole lot of bundles manually is laborious and hence they would arrange for unloading equipments to ease the work.
After an agreement was reached between the public and the election officials, the truck was sealed by Srinivasan, election flying squad officer.
The truck driver, Prakash and Staff Akbar claim that they have not faced such issues ever and promise that the truck contains tea powder to be shipped to Germany. They also expressed disapproval over the incident, as the truck was already checked by the Customs and permission has been accorded for the truck. The truck contains Tea dust worth Rs. 30 lakhs, they said.