When local Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) stopped a heavily loaded 10-wheel truck here on Thursday night and the crew escaped giving a slip, officials grew suspicious that the truck was loaded with some smuggled goods, but it turned out to be a damp squib.
RDO Baby, accompanied by other revenue officials was checking vehicles near Bharathi Nagar, when she stopped the truck coming from Mandapam. The driver and his assistant told the officials that they were carrying salt.
The officials were also convinced as salt was strewn in the cabin and sides.
The trip sheet too suggested that the truck was loaded with salt. However, when questioned further, the driver and his assistant, in the pretext of bringing samples escaped under the cover of darkness.
After they escaped, the officials thought that the truck was loaded with some smuggled goods. However, when the officials, assisted by the police checked the truck on Friday after moving it to the agriculture department office complex, they found it was loaded with sand.
Suspecting that the smuggled goods might have been hidden inside the sand, they unloaded the truck with the help of half a dozen workers and found the entire truck to be loaded with sand. The registration number of the truck was traced to a owner in Erode, police said. Kenikarai police have registered a case and are investigating.
