A well-built body and a knife were enough to threaten and rob people, thought this 28-year-old habitual offender who had so much of audacity that he forced three youths to part with the keys of a motorbike in broad daylight at Melur in Madurai district on Thursday.
That was not all. He went on a robbery spree on the arterial roads of the city. He even did not spare a youth driving a car and forced him to hand him gold and cash. In a similar way, he snatched valuables from a rider on Vaigai South Bank Road.
With a handsome booty, the youth fled to his home in the neighbouring district of Dindigul.
But, around midnight, the Madurai city police, with the help of Dindigul police, knocked at his doors at Kathriyankulam to disturb him from a slumber.
“How did you trace me,” was the first question the shocked robber asked the police. For, he thought he was smarter enough to strike at the neighbouring district and relax without any worry at his home.
The accused who tried to jump the compound wall to escape from the police failed in his attempt.
After interrogation, the police recovered the booty as well as the robbed motorbike parked in his house.
The police who identified the robber as P. Rajasekar said that he was involved in crimes in other districts, including Salem. He tried his hands in Madurai for the first time and got trapped.
Even as he was still wondering while cooling his heels behind bars as how the police traced him at his house, a police officer revealed the secret.
The owner of the motorbike had left his mobile phone in the vehicle. “Immediately after he told about the cell phone in the vehicle, we started tracing the number with its tower location. The accused did not know about the phone since it was on silent mode,” a police officer said.
