Saturday saw a group of tipplers in Tindivanam, 124 km south of Chennai, robbing hundreds of liquor bottles stored in a court room and vanishing into thin air. The liquor bottles, a major chunk of which dated back to 2009, were seized from smugglers who were trying to bring the consignment from nearby Puducherry and had been stored in the court room to produce as evidence when the case came up for hearing.
Though the court has been shifted to a new premises in the neighbouring compound, the liquor bottles were left in the old court room as the officials were yet to find out a suitable place to store the material.
A group of tipplers got the news about old and seasoned liquor consignment was getting ‘wasted’ in an unguarded court room and they chose to strike on Saturday while the court was closed due to holiday.
The group which struck first was “fortunate” as they had a free run and made away with most of the bottles. Some of the onlookers too joined them and tried to grab as much booty as possible. But they ran out of luck as some passers-by informed the police about the unusual goings on in the old court building.
When the cops arrived at the scene, the first group had made their way to safety while those who had followed them to flick away the spirits had to leave the bounty and run for their lives. The policemen decided to collect the left over bottles instead of giving a chase to the “treasure-hunters”.
“We do not know the exact number of bottles taken away by the dacoits. But we managed to save a part of the consignment,” said a police officer. He said that brandy formed a major portion of the booty.
But a robbery that took place at Kuppanampatti village in Madurai district left the police officials in splits by the time they zeroed in on the robber. A Government-owned liquor outlet reported last Thursday that 374 liquor bottles have vanished from the store. The police rushed to the liquor outlet and were literally shocked to find that there was no trace of any evidence as the finger print experts too threw up their hands in helplessness.
The cops, with the help of some local informers, got information on Sunday that a village youth by name Silambarasan in neighbouring Sikander Sawadi village was distributing liquor bottles free of cost to all poor men in the locality.
When the policemen reached the village, they found the tipplers including Silambarasan in high spirits. The villagers were singing songs in praise of Silambarasan for the “windfall” and was asking him to ensure that they get their quota on a daily basis. Silambarasan confessed of stealing the bottles from the outlet to help the poor villagers who were struggling to manage a gulp because of the high cost involved.
The modern day Robin hood is cooling his heals in a Madurai prison while the police recovered 144 unopened liquor bottles from him. The question being asked is whether this batch of “consignment” too would end up like the ones at Tindivanam.