Masked men beat up driver, take away vehicle carrying windmill spare parts

Masked men in a car waylaid a lorry carrying windmill spare parts and drove it away after assaulting the driver near Gummidipoondi in the early hours of Sunday.

According to police, Manikandan, from Mannargudi, was driving the lorry carrying ₹5 lakh worth spare parts. He collected the consignment at Thirumullaivoyal and was heading towards Gummidipoondi, on the Chennai–Kolkatta National Highway for powder coating the spare parts.

When the vehicle reached Panambakkam under the Kavarapettai police station limits, a car stopped in front of the lorry. Manikandan stopped the vehicle.

A group of men wearing monkey caps came out of the car and forced Manikandan to leave the lorry at knife-point.

When he refused, they hit him with logs and drove the vehicle away.

Manikandan lodged a complaint with the Kavarapettai police station. Special teams were formed to crack the case. “We have collected footage from toll gates,” said a senior police officer.

Similar incidents

Recently, two cases of carjacking were reported on the Chennai–Kolkatta National highway. One of them took place in the Andhra Pradesh police limits. A car looking similar to the one used on Sunday was involved in the other two cases.

“The modus operandi was the same. The cars were first intercepted by the hatchback and masked men threatened the drivers at knife-point before driving away the vehicles,” added the officer. Police suspect it was same gang that was involved in all the robberies.