Lankan narcotic smugglers held

Tiruchirapalli, Tamilnadu, July 29 (UNI) In a Major breakthrough, a Special Police Team today arrested two notorious narcotic smugglers, from Sri Lanka, who had escaped from the escort police men, while they were being taken back in a state-owned bus to the Tiruchirapalli Central Prison on Wednesday.

Disclosing this at a press conference, here tonight, M S Jaffar Sait, Inspector General of Police, Central Zone said on a tip-off, a special police team, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Keeranur Almas Ali rushed to Therespuram in Tuticorin and made the arrest.

The arrested include Imtiaz Ahmed and his associate Selvakumar, besides three criminals Sasi alias Sasikaran, Sathiyamurthy and Athmanathan, who helped the Lankans to escape from different places in Tuticorin District, this evening.

They were being brought to Tiruchirapalli for further interrogation by the special police team.

Narrating the entire escape episode of the duo, Mr Jaffar Sait said Imtiaz Ahmed and Selvakumar, both involved in a narcotic smuggling case, were arrested and lodged in the Tiruchirapalli Central Prison, a few months ago.

Since, the Police had concrete evidence against them, they hatched a plan to escape from custody to evade court punishment, with the help of some rowdies, who were the inmates of the prison.

As per the plan, Sasikaran, Sathiyamurthy and Athmanathan hired six coolie criminals and the entire armed gang posing as passengers attacked the escort police team, before spraying chilli powder on them on their way to the central prison on Wednesday from Essential Commodities Court at Pudukkottai.

After successfully staging the attack, the gang forcibly freed the them and all of them escaped in a Tata Sumo car, which was following the bus.

As one of the gang members Sasikaran owned two boats, the Sri Lankans planned to escape to Sri Lanka via Tuticorin. The entire escape episode was staged with the help of local rowdies and there was no involvement of any organisation in Sri Lanka, he added.

He said the police have seized cell phones and a motorcycle used for the escape and the Tata Sumo Car, would be seized soon.

A hunt is on to nab the six other persons, who were involved in the incident.

Mr Jaffar Sait said, soon after their escape from the escort police custody, a red alert was sounded and the photos of Imtiaz Ahmed and Selvakumar were flashed to all the police stations across the state using 'Wide Area Network' a computer-linked-network connecting all the police station. It helped the investigating teams to nab the criminals very quickly, he added.

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