Police are on the lookout for a businessman’s son who drove his Mercedes Benz car over sleeping pavement dwellers killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring others at Egmore in Chennai last week.

Police said that Shaji Purushottaman, the scion of the liquor major Empee Distilleries, and his three friends were returning from a late night party and their drunken driving caused the accident.  A police patrol car caught them after a chase but Shaji was released when he claimed he was not driving and promised to bring his father.

However his friends testified that Shaji was indeed driving. Based on this, two police officers who interrogated him were suspended and transferred. Five police teams also carried out an interstate search and suspect that Shaji may have fled to Malaysia where his company has branches.

Both father and son have been denied anticipatory bail.

 

Two brutally
murdered in
North Chennai

Two men were brutally murdered in North Chennai last week.

K Velu, a 48-year-old fruit vendor was hacked to death by an armed gang at Mahakavi Bharathiyar Nagar in the presence of his two sons and hundreds of passersby.

The gang escaped on bikes, while Velu died on the way to hospital.

Police said that Velu was also a moneylender and suspect that some of his borrowers may have committed the crime.

The same day, Raja, 22, was murdered by his friends in the same locality. Police said Raja had been having an affair with his friend Saravanan’s married sister and suspect it was an ‘honour’ killing.

North Chennai has been notorious for brutal murders in the past year.

 

Five arrested
in prostitution
racket

Five people were arrested for trafficking girls for prostitution in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu last week.

The gang’s activities came to light when a 17-year-old girl lodged a complaint with Tiruchy police that she had been brought from Andhra Pradesh with the promise of a film career in Tamil Nadu.

She complained that three men who brought her raped her in a moving car and left her in a house at Tiruchy with some other girls. However she managed to escape by scaling the wall the following morning.

Based on the girl’s mobile phone records, police traced gang leader Asha in nearby Thanjavur town and are now searching for her colleague Monisha.

 

Personalised
postage stamps

The cash-strapped Department of Post Chennai Circle’s philatelic bureau has introduced personalised postage stamps to encourage people to use conventional hand written letters, whose volume had dropped with the easy availability of Internet and mobile phones.

The My Stamp scheme allows customers to choose thematic postal stamp sheets and emboss them with their photos that cost Rs5 each. The photos have to be taken at the Anna Nagar head post office and cost Rs300 a dozen with service charge of Rs240.

All customers have to give identity proof to apply for these stamps that can be legally used for postage.

Postmaster General Alexander Marvin said: “We have received 80,000 applicants within 20 days of launch. The stamps reach customers within four or five days of application.”

 

Snake charmer
caught in school

A 27-year-old snake charmer who performed with three live snakes at a school function was arrested by forest department officials in Salem last week.  The forest department said that J Prem Kumar had been illegally renting snakes and using them to earn money.