Thief asks cops to push-start stolen van, held

The incident happened early on Tuesday morning when R Selvamanickam and P Madankumar were sipping their morning tea at a shop in Puzhal. A man approached them seeking their help to push-start his vehicle, a Tata Ace minivan, that was stopped on the side of the road after developing a mechanical fault. The duo immediately volunteered to help the driver in distress.

However, what the man did not know then was Selvamanickam and Madankumar were constables belonging to 10th battalion of Tamil NaduSpecial Police (TSP).

When they started pushing the vehicle, the policemen noticed two things: one of the windows was broken, and the vehicle did not have the ignition key. This aroused suspicion in the minds of the personnel. Not leaving anything to chance, they first detained the driver. The constables found the owner’s mobile number written on the vehicle, and called him. Only then did the driver, later identified as Balaji, understood that he sought help from the wrong people.

When contacted, the vehicle owner identified himself as Rehman from Sathuvachari in Vellore, and told the cops that his vehicle that was parked on the side of the road was stolen the previous night.

Rehman said he suspected that the thief could have driven it away after gaining entry by breaking the side window because there was broken glasses on the road where the vehicle was parked.

After confirming that the vehicle was stolen, the constables handed over Balaji to the Puzhal police. Police said Balaji alias Balakrishnan (27) of Periapalayam was a known offender, who was allegedly involved in a murder attempt case in Red Hills police station. On Thursday, city Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan rewarded the two TSP constables for the good work they had done.