Virudhunagar district police seized 28 bags of banned tobacco goods that were being smuggled in a speeding car near here on Saturday.
A team of police from Sattur, led by Inspector of Police (Traffic), Vivekanandan, who were on duty at Sivananaithapuram police check post, got an alert about two speeding cars on the Sattur-Kovilpatti highway road.
The police were told that one car was fleeing after having involved in a hit-and-run accident and another black car was also closely following it.
The police who were waiting at the check post found the car that had been involved in the accident proceeding towards them.
Even as the police waived at the driver to pull over the vehicle, the driver did not slow down, but raced up menacingly as if to mow down the police personnel.
However, the policemen managed to escape from it.
After the car fled the scene, the police got ready to intercept the other car.
The driver of the black car also tried to flee. But, with the barricade at the check post already put across the road, the car driver was forced to stop it. Later, during an enquiry, the police found that the black car had a forged number plate. While the car was registered in Karnataka, it had a Tami Nadu registration number plate.
The driver, who was identified as J. Santosh (27), of Tiruchendur, had claimed that the owner of the car, P. Kalimuthu, also from Tiruchendur, had asked him to drive the car following the other car.
While he claimed that the car had bags of fodder, he could not produce any document to support his claim.
When the police opened the bags, they found 28 bags of banned tobacco products, worth ₹ 1.05 lakh.
The police booked Santosh, Kalimuthu and the other car driver, Karuppasamy, for attempting to murder and preventing the police from discharging their duty. They were also booked under the provisions of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. The police are on the lookout for the other two accused.
