CHENNAI: Four bike theft suspects seen altering the CCTV camera at Ice House were proved innocent. The men who lost their jobs and avoided by their neighbours as a result of this claimed that they had altered the camera to avoid their motorbike being stolen.
The police personnel on Wednesday during the patrol duty noticed that the CCTV camera on Haji Sheik Hussein Street at Ice House was turning the other way and retrieved the footage.
The footage showed four men trying to unlock a bike and after seeing the CCTV camera, they turned towards the bike and the left the spot on December 17.
The Ice House police claimed the men to be bike thieves and launched a hunt for the men, releasing the footage to the media on December 26.
While the police personnel claimed that the installing of the CCTV footages has helped the people by spotting the bike thieves, the four men came to the media to prove that they are not thieves.
“I own a roadside fast food shop at Ice House and on December 17, I lost my bike key and at midnight I called my friends to help me open the bike,” said Sharuk, one of the four tagged as bike thieves by the police. He added, “Since we could not open the bike, we left the vehicle on the road and altered the CCTV camera towards my bike so that it is not stolen,” said Sharuk one of the men.
“I showed my documents to the police and proved them that it was my bike and explained to them what happened,” said Sharuk.
Meanwhile, his friends Rizwan, Salman and Habeeb who were working as mechanics claimed that they lost their jobs as a result of police tagging them as criminals.
A senior police officer said, “We did not file any case against the men and it should be taken as a warning to others who try to misuse the CCTV
camera for their self-interest.
