CHENNAI: Tension prevailed in Sevvapet in Tiruvallur on Friday night after two police constables attached to Tiruvottiyur police station were rounded up by villagers after they entered the house of a lawyer to take property documents in a civil case.

The Inspector of Tiruvottiyur police station was transferred to vacancy reserve following the incident. A detailed inquiry has been ordered into their conduct.

Four policemen in plain clothes went to the house of advocate Sridhar Babu by posing as a real estate brokers. After asking for the original documents of a plot in Porur, the men identified themselves as policemen and told Babu that they would be taking the documents in connection with a complaint pending at their police station.

An argument followed, and two of the men then took the deed and fled in a car. Babu locked the other two inside his house, raised an alarm and alerted his neighbours. Residents gathered at the house and detained the two men before informing Sevvapet police.

Police reached the spot and confirmed that the two men were constables Mani and Perumal, attached to Tiruvottiyur police station. Police said the four had come to retrieve the deed on the instructions of their senior officers following a complaint registered at Tiruvottiyur station.

Police sources said they had registered a Community Service Register (CSR) entry in connection with the land dispute to favour one party. Villagers refused to release the policemen after which police intervened and contacted the policemen who escaped with the documents.

The two men later brought the deed to Sevvapet police station. Police were questioning all four to establish the details of the original complaint, ownership of the property and the circumstances under which the deed was taken from Babu. Further investigations are underway.