MADURAI: Autodriver R. Malaichamy (46) did was, he asked for some money from the few youths, who had boarded his vehicle, for refuelling at a petrol bunk on West Veli Street on Sunday. Suddenly, the youths started abusing him and one of them pulled out a machete and attempted to attack the driver.
However, the driver managed to run away from the spot even as it was helplessly watched by the petrol bunk staff.
Within a few seconds, the youths boarded the auto and one of them attempted to drive it away.
As the panicked autodriver came back running towards his vehicle, he was again chased by the armed youths. Meanwhile, two youths who came to the petrol station on a two-wheeler for replenishing the fuel tank, suddenly got the wind of the perilous situation and fled from the scene. Later, the youths escaped on the autorickshaw.
The whole crime was captured in detail by the closed circuit television camera installed at the petrol bunk and within no time the police identified those suspects and the vehicle parked in front of the house of one of them was recovered.
Out of the five, three persons — identified as S. Kannan (24), M. Sadak Abdullah (23) and M. Muthuraja (23) were arrested.
Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav recently convened a meeting of petrol bunk owners and appealed to them to put up additional cameras preferably, with high-resolution and night vision facility for their CCTV network so that it acted as a deterrent to crimes and also help the police in detection.
