Police have arrested and jailed a burglar who had been breaking into shops in the Vilathikulam area for the past one week, stealing money, robbing the public by pointing a knife.
Stalin Benjamin (43) runs a grocery store in the Vilathikulam vegetable market area of the Thoothukudi district. When he came to the shop on January 18 morning, he was shocked upon seeing the lock being broken and Rs 85,000 was stolen from the shop. Following this, Stalin lodged a complaint at the Vilathikulam police station. When the police examined the CCTV footage of the shop, it was revealed that an old man on a bicycle broke the lock of the shop and stole the money.
Police later searched for the elderly man based on the CCTV footage. When the cops examined the CCTV footage of some shops in the city, it was revealed that the same person was riding a bicycle and similar theft complaints were lodged at police stations. In this situation, Anandaraman, a resident of Vilathikulam lodged a police complaint that when he was traveling in a two-wheeler during late night, an old man who stole from the shop tried to snatch money from Anandaraman by pointing a knife at him. The old man ran away as soon as Anandaraman began to scream for help.
As the atrocity of the old man increased day by day, the police intensified their search to catch the old man. Ultimately, after a week, when the police witnessed the old man in front of a hotel on the Vilathikulam-Ettayapuram road, surrounded him and took him for investigation.
Meanwhile, the investigation revealed that the old man was Rajendran (71) from the Tiruthangal area of Virudhunagar district. Rajendran also admitted that he was the one who stole money from Stalin Benjamin’s shop and threatened Anandaraman with a knife. Following the police investigation, it was revealed that there were 44 cases against Rajendran in the police stations of Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts, of which 29 were theft cases.
According to police, Rajendran is a history-sheeter and he has been committing crime since the 80s and so far there are 130 cases against him.
Adding, Rajendran took up a style for himself, ‘to go on a bicycle during daytime and steal wherever he goes’. That’s how Rajendran drew his prefix as ‘Cycle’ Rajendran. It was also revealed that he had extorted money from men who visit TASMAC and go home alone after boozing. Following this, the police arrested Rajendran and confiscated Rs 85,000 from him. The District SP, Jayakumar, and Vilathikulam DSP Prakash expressed their appreciation to the cops who nabbed him.
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