SL man held from Pondy hideout for robbing houses in Ramnad dist

MADURAI: A 39-year-old Sri Lankan national and a serial offender involved in several house break-ins in Ramanathapuram and Paramakudi was arrested from his Puducherry hideout by a special team.

Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police P Thangadurai said that following a series of complaints from parts of Ramanathapuram and Paramakudi over the last month about thefts in houses, a special team led by Aadivel, Kenikarai Inspector, was formed to identify and nab the culprits. During investigations, the team found that A Riyaskhan, a Sri Lankan national, who lived in Villianur of Puducherry, was involved in the thefts.

Sources said that Riyaskhan was a native of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. He and his father landed illegally in Chennai in 2019 and moved to Madurai where they were arrested under Passports Act and lodged in Puzhal prison. Sometime later, he was out of the jail and was again arrested in connection with a theft case and sent to Coimbatore jail. He developed friendship with a co-prisoner, who was a resident of Ramanathapuram. Soon after coming out of Coimbatore jail, he took a house on rent at Mohamathiyapuram in Ramanathapuram with the help of his co-prisoner and was staying there with his family.

Under the guise of doing cell phone repair and service at doorsteps, he moved around on his bike to different residential localities and noted the locked houses during the day. At night, he used to rob those houses.

When the team was tracking call data records in the region where houses were robbed, police managed to locate the hideout of the offender and arrested him from Puducherry.

Further, the fingerprints found at the crime spot and that of Riyaskhan matched confirming his involvement in the thefts. The police also recovered 15 sovereigns of gold, Rs 49,000 in cash, three wrist watches and a camera from him. Earlier, four cases were booked against him under various sections, including 454, 457 and 380 of IPC, the SP said.