Coimbatore: An innovative form of robbery is gaining momentum in Coimbatore. Persons who claim to be traders contact sellers of nuts and spices including almonds, cashew nuts and pepper in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Maharashtra and other places furnish fake address details and business cards, place orders with them and promise cash on delivery.
Coimbatore: An innovative form of robbery is gaining momentum in Coimbatore. Persons who claim to be traders contact sellers of nuts and spices including almonds, cashew nuts and pepper in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Hyderabad, Maharashtra and other places furnish fake address details and business cards, place orders with them and promise cash on delivery. When the drivers who come for delivering the goods drive around in search of the fake addresses provided by the fake buyers, someone from the gang of dacoits distract them somehow and other members bring in a vehicle and lift the goods.
This being the case, Vasantha Kumar, a pepper trader from Thevaram in Theni district, was contacted online by members of a gang. who identified themselves as traders from Coimbatore. They placed an order stating that 1 ton of pepper is required. They assured that the money for the pepper will be paid at the time of the delivery.
Following this, Vasanthakumar packed 1 ton of pepper in 20 bundles of 50 kg each in a pickup vehicle and sent it to Coimbatore through a driver named Sivakumar who kept driving around in search of the fake address to no avail. An exhausted Sivakumar parked his vehicle at Veerapandi Pirivu area next to Periyanaickennpalayam, got out of the truck and fell asleep in front of a shop nearby.
The thieves who were following the truck in a lorry found their window of opportunity and transferred the 20 bundles of pepper to their vehicle and fled from there. Sivakumar who woke up a while later was shocked to find that the pepper bundles were missing. Following this he lodged a complaint at the Periyanaickenpalayam police station based on which a team comprising Inspector Prithiviraj, Sub-Inspector Selvanayagam, Constables Sasi, Rajesh, Sathish and Muthamizh was formed under the supervision of ADSP Anita on the orders of Periyanaickenpalayam Deputy Superintendent of Police Krishnamurthy to nab the criminals. The team conducted an investigation at the scene of the theft.
Inspection of CCTV footage from the vicinity clearly revealed the number of the vehicle used for theft as TN 66 M 9317. Based on this, Abdul Nasser and Saddam Hussein from Podanur from Coimbatore were arrested. An interrogation revealed that they have managed to steal nuts and spices including almonds, cashew nuts, cardamom and pepper from many in the same manner they did from Vasanthakumar of Theni. The police confiscated 1 ton of pepper worth Rs 3 lakh and the van used for the theft from them. The two of them were arrested, produced in court and lodged at the Coimbatore Central Jail.