A police special team has arrested a police constable from neighbouring Thoothukudi district for allegedly involved in a series of burglaries in the city.
After sudden spurt in burglary in the twin towns of Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai, in which over ₹ 50 lakh-worth gold ornaments were stolen, Commissioner of Police, Tirunelveli City, Deepak M. Damor formed a special team to investigate the burglaries. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic) M. Magesh was coordinating the investigations.
When the special team lifted five fingerprints from the house in Perumalpuram that was burgled by unidentified culprits in October, the fingerprint experts found that one of the fingerprints resembled the fingerprint of police constable M. Karkkuvel, 28, from Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district.
Since he was found to be working in the Arumuganeri police station, Mr. Deepak alerted S. Jayakumar, Superintendent of Police, Thoothukudi, to closely monitor him. The SP transferred him to the Armed Reserve Police two weeks ago. Even as the special team brought Karkkuvel under its surveillance and recorded his telephone calls, he was transferred to Tenkasi district.
However, Karkkuvel did not report for duty in Tenkasi district and continued to be in the Armed Reserve Police quarters in Thoothukudi.
Against this backdrop, the special team detained Karkkuvel on Thursday around 3 a.m. and brought him to Tirunelveli for inquiry. The investigators, during the questioning found that Karkkuvel, who joined the Tamil Nadu Police in 2017, had worked in Armed Reserve Police before joining duty in Tiruchendur and Arumuganeri police stations.
As he had lost several lakhs of rupees in online gambling and had landed in a debt trap, Karkkuvel, along with his friends, had indulged in burglaries. The investigators recovered 12 sovereigns of gold ornaments, a car and a bike. The hunt is on to nab four of his associates.
Karkkuvel was remanded in judicial custody on Friday.
