Ramanathapuram
Sleuths of Divisional Customs Preventive Unit here have detained a Sri Lankan Tamil woman and two others when they attempted to ferry her clandestinely to Sri Lanka on Tuesday night.
Acting on specific information and on the direction of V. Rajkumar Moses, Assistant Commissioner, Ramanathapuram customs division, Superintendents of Police (SPs) M Muniasamy and Prem Babu kept a vigil on the Manthoppu seashore near Thangachimadam around 11 30 p.m. and detained the trio along with a car.
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The customs officials handed them over to the Thangachimadam police for further action. Police identified the trio as B. Ramani, 62, Lankan Tamil and native of Wellawatte near Colombo, R. Aldrine, 42 a local fisherman and M. Chandravel, 58, a car driver from Tiruchi.
Customs officials said Ramani, who came to Tamil Nadu on a tourist visa six months ago to visit her three daughters studying in different colleges, was staying in Tiruchi when she had allegedly lost her passport and chose to clandestinely return.
After learning that her husband’s family properties were being disposed of and her husband, who is in Wellawatte, faced difficulties in getting his share, she wanted to return and contacted her brother Sudhakar in Canada, who had arranged for the clandestine ferrying.
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After he had fixed Robert in Sri Lanka to receive her on the high seas, Aldrine ferried her on Tuesday night but returned after failing to get a signal from Robert, the officials said. Aldrine, who had charged ₹30,000 for ferrying, was fixed by Jeeva, Sudhakar’s contact in Thanjavur district, the sources said.
The SPs kept a close vigil after deploying a team from Rameswaram customs preventive unit in the sea and another team on the shore when Aldrine set sail with the woman. After sailing for about 100 meters, they remained in the sea for more than 30 minutes and returned to the shore.
Before the shore team could reach the spot, they escaped under the cover of darkness. A few minutes later, when Aldrine returned to the shore, looking for his missing purse, the sleuths detained him. Later, they detained the woman and the car driver from a lodge in Rameswaram, they said.
Interrogation revealed that Ramani had obtained an Aadhaar card, giving fake Coimbatore address, they said.