Four member gang held for extorting businessmen

The accused, Divakaran (23) and Vijayan (25) of East Padappai, Murugan (28) of Koolangalchery, and Sriram (22) of Anandanchery used the cover of running a water supply agency in Padappai to monitor the movements at posh houses and bungalows.

The gang has so far accumulated over Rs 20 lakh, said police. Devarajan (46) of Padappai recently approached police alleging that he has been receiving threatening calls demanding money. A case was registered and police the located the gang using mobile phone tower data and arrested them. It may be recalled that Kanathur police had arrested a law student, R Balaji, and his friend V Murugan, a mechanic, in May for making threatening calls to extort money from a dentist Dr G Harish of Kanathur.

Pallikaranai police arrested a serial burglar, A Pandian alias Mayakrishnan (27) of Manali, on Tuesday and recovered 46 sovereigns from him. Police said that Pandian targeted locked houses in areas such as Manali New Town, Adambakkam, Madipakkam and Pallikaranai, and looted them in broad daylight. He was also involved in waylaying of a senior citizen in Pallikaranai.