Coimbatore: In an important breakthrough, the Coimbatore district police have secured two persons including a retired CRPF men in connection with the mysterious pistol recovered recently from a parcel van in Coimbatore.
According to police, a pistol and a walkie-talkie was handed over to Sulur police recently by a courier parcel van driver. These were left behind in the van by a retired CRPF personnel when he took a lift here on the night of December 23, claiming to be a cop.
Investigations revealed that he was part of a currency exchanging gang. Police confirmed that the weapon belongs to Mathialagan 46, a retired CRPF personnel from Chennai, Avadi. Police brought him and his three associates to Coimbatore to investigate how the pistol was traced in the textile city when Mathialagan is located in Chennai.
They found that he along with his friends- area councilor Tamilarasan of Avadi in Chennai, and two other ex-CRPF men Subramaniam and Kathiresan, who are believed part of a group exchanging demonetised currency notes for commission, had come to Coimbatore to meet a person named Bawa for changing notes.
While heading to meet his associates in the courier service van, Mathialagan is said to have misplaced the pistol. After reaching Chennai, Mathialagan failed to launch a complaint about the missing of his weapon, which made the police to suspect him. But Mathialagan had said that he had lodged a complaint with Chennai police, which was found to be a false statement.
Sulur police have begun further investigations with the ex-CRPF man, Kathiresan and councilor Tamilarasan to collect details about the banned notes they were trying to exchange.
Meanwhile, sources at the Sulur police station said that Mathialagan and the other ex-CRPF man, Subramaniam, would also be detained soon.
