COIMBATORE: The Saravanampatti police arrested a police constable and a lawyer on Friday for their links with rowdies and drug peddlers in the city.
The arrested were identified as P Sridhar, 29, a grade-I police constable attached to the Race Course police station, and lawyer A Ashik Ali, 24. They used to pass vital information to criminals to evade arrest and receive money from them, police said.
The unholy nexus was exposed after the anti-rowdy squad, led by assistant commissioner of police T H Ganesh and inspector Rajkumar, arrested several Coimbatore-based rowdies from the outskirts of Bengaluru last month. The squad arrested J Suji Mohan, 29, a close aide of notorious gangster Kamarajapuram Gowtham, and R Praveenraj, 25, of Rathinapuri, and V Amarnath, 23 and C Prasanth, 25, of Ganapathy, on April 29 after a 4km foot chase. They also arrested gang members U Ashwin, 29, of Thrissur; K Rajesh, 25, of Ganapathy; and C Pradeep, 22, of Vadavalli in the evening. Police seized 50 gram of methamphetamine from them.
Before he was caught, Amarnath recorded a video on his cellphone that showed him being pursued by cops and sent it to his relatives, friends and lawyer Ashik. It went viral on social media. He smashed the phone before cops nabbed him.
The squad seized the damaged phone and those of the other gang members to retrieve data. “We recovered 30 audio files. Some of them are conversations between constable Sridhar and Suji. Sridhar is heard making false and defamatory statements against some senior police officers,” a police officer said.
Suji and his friends were planning to avenge the murder of their friend Gokul, 24, of Lakshmi Garden at Kondayampalayam, who was hacked to death by a gang near the combined court complex in Coimbatore city in February, the officer said. “Sridhar, who was a member of the special team led by former assistant commissioner R Vincent in February, advised the gang members not to act on impulse and wait till senior police officers in the city are transferred. He also shared information about police movement with rowdies and drug peddlers for money. He told Suji that he was involved in extrajudicial killings of gangsters.”
Ashik also used to peddle methamphetamine, the officer said. “We have recovered videos of him dancing with the gang members in Goa.”
Police are now trying to retrieve files from Amarnath’s damaged phone. “We have recovered several videos from the phones and will take action against the drug peddlers,”the officer said.
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