Chennai: A notorious burglar, who had committed over 150 house breaks-in the city, on Monday knocked on the doors of the Chennai police chief, saying that he was 65 years old and not indulging any property crimes - yet the Anna Salai police have been harassing him and trying to falsely implicate him in a house break-in reported recently at Royapettah.
Ghouse Basha, living in Vellore, reached the CoP office with his daughter and submitted his petition. The city police last week had claimed that fingerprints lifted from the scene of crime in Royapettah matched those of Ghouse.
Later, talking to reporters at the CoP office premises, Ghouse claimed that he had not been into house break-ins for the last five years. But, the police were trying to nail him and his son for crimes somebody else had committed. “I am suffering from kidney failure and undergoing dialysis on a regular basis. My son is earning by driving cabs. I have stopped indulging in burglaries,” he said, sitting in a car that sported a ‘press’ sticker. He said one of his friend in Vellore had provided him the car to travel to Chennai.
Ghouse, arrested at a very young age by the Saidapet police for stealing goats and jailed years ago, had turned into a notorious burglar. “I met my ‘mentor’ in jail and he took me out on bail. He trained me. Then I started out on my own,” he recalled.
He also said he used to go well-dressed to commit burglaries so that nobody would suspect him.
