CHENNAI: A crane owner-cum-operator was arrested by the police for allegedly lifting the iron pillars from the premises of the CMRL yard in Koyambedu in the wee hours on Thursday.
Police had confiscated the crane, a lorry and the stolen iron pillars from him.
Police said that an unidentified conman engaged the crane operator to 'transport' the iron pillars from the location after transferring Rs. 2,000 as advance through an online transaction.
Police detained the crane owner D Naresh, 22, a resident of Madhavaram, for questioning and the police team is searching for the absconded suspect.
Babu, one of the security guards, stayed at the makeshift tents inside the CMRL yard alerted the security guard on duty after he saw the man using a crane to lift the iron pillars and keeping it on a truck parked nearby.
The security guard Murugan and the TSP constable Manikandan alerted the city police immediately and a team from Koyambedu police station reached the scene and arrested Naresh.
During interrogation, Naresh told police that he had been running the crane services in Madhavaram for the past four years.
He claimed to have received a call from a mobile number '733-719' on November 8 around 10 pm and asked him to send a crane and a truck to a 'location' in Koyambedu to transport the iron pillars.
After he received Rs 2,000 as advance from the person assigned the task, he went to the spot and then lifted the iron pillars and kept them on the truck carrier, when he was arrested.