Truck Carrying Cigarettes Worth Rs 1.5 Crore Hijacked In Tamil Nadu By Armed Men
In a rather unusual case of robbery, a group of armed men 'stole' a truck full of cigarettes.
The incident happened near Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
The truck that was on its way from a factory godown to deliver the consignment in Andhra Pradesh was intercepted near Sriperumbudur by a car and five men on bikes.
The men then held the driver Kumar on knife-point and fled with the truck.
Based on his complaint, police launched an investigation and found the truck abandoned near Sholinghur on Thursday with the load missing.
According to the godown supervisor, the total worth of the cigarette load was Rs 1.52 crore.
Based on CCTV visuals the police have arrested five suspects.
ˇ°We combed through CCTV footage and found that the lorry was moving towards Vellore,ˇ± a senior police officer said.
Around half of the stolen goods have reportedly been recovered.
While it is a strange case this is not the first time cigarette trucks have been stolen in India.
In October 2018, a truck carrying cigarettes worth over Rs 1 crore was hijacked in Palghar district of Maharashtra.
The vehicle with its consignment of cigarettes intact was later found abandoned in Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
However, the biggest such incident happened in September 2017, in Pune when two container trucks carrying tobacco products were waylaid and their contents, including cigarettes worth Rs 18.90 crore and chewing tobacco worth Rs 14 lakh, was robbed by two gangs.
A container carrying 865 cartons of cigarettes was robbed after it left Ranjangaon about 50km from Pune, while another container carrying tobacco was robbed at Ane Ghat section near Junna.
