Periyakulam: Notorious rowdy ‘Bullet’ Nagaraj, who has been in hot news lately after his death threats on phone to a woman jail superintendent went viral, was arrested after a movie-style bike chase at Thenkarai near here on Monday. Cash worth Rs one crore in old 1000/500 notes were recovered from him.
Apart from the phone threat to Urmila, superintendent of the Madurai Central Prison, Nagarajan had allegedly issued threats to the SPs in Theni and Madurai, the district collector in Theni and woman police inspector Madhanakala in Thenkarai station. He is allegedly involved in over 35 cases of robbery, criminal intimidation, threat of injury to public servant and rowdyism, according to police.
“I chased him on my motorbike for almost 30 minutes through the streets and lanes of Thenkarai today morning before cornering him in a narrow road. He pulled out a long knife and tried to stab but I managed to overpower him”, said constable M Kasirajan, whose earlier close shave with death was during the hunt for Veerappan as a member of the STF.
Nagarajan got his ‘Bullet’ nickname as he conducted his ‘operations’, such as chain-snatching and rowdyism, riding on his bullet bike. He called himself ‘sub-judge’, a lawyer, a newspaper editor and of course, the executioner.
In this present sensational phone-threat to Urmila, he called himself as the ‘Great General Nagaraj’ and told her he was not scared of law enforcing agencies as he has been a guest of all jails in Tamil Nadu, so she can go ahead and record the phone conversation.
Expressing his ire for her ‘bad treatment’ meted out to his elder brother Ramesh Murugan, an inmate in Madurai Central Prison, he told the woman jailer: “I am not the old Bullet Nagaraj. You have to come out of jail someday. I won’t do anything, the boys might. They have killed many people in front of my eyes and I have seen that. The deputy jailer was burnt alive in Chennai”.
He also alleged he bribed many jail officials, sold ganja and had ten mobile phones with him when he was in jail. In the threat call to Madhanakala, he threatened he would do to her “what will affect you a lot”. Constable Kasirajan said two ‘dummy’ pistols, two knives, fake ID cards and a rubber stamp were recovered from Nagarajan, besides the one crore rupees in old currency notes.
