CHENNAI: City police, on Monday, arrested five men who allegedly stole a crane that was in the Metro Rail work in Medavakkam and sold it in Andhra Pradesh.

Contract workers at the Metro Rail workers on June 10 noticed one of the three cranes which were parked on the roadside near the construction site missing.

Based on a complaint from site engineer Anand Kumar, Pallikaranai police took up the investigation. The police tried to identify the crane jackers with the help of CCTV.

Meanwhile, the police received a piece of information that the crane which was missing in Medavakkam was found at Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. The police who went to Andhra Pradesh found that Narasimhan (42) and Anil Kumar (25) were giving the crane for rental on an hourly basis in the locality. They told the police that they purchased the crane from three men from Chennai a week ago.

The police seized the crane and during the inquiry, found that the crane operator Murali (43) from Ennore and his friends Karthick (43), and Thirunavukarasu (48) went to Kalahasti with the crane and sold it there. The police arrested all five of them and remanded them in judicial custody.