E-Paper
Wanted criminal arrested at recruitment test for Tamil Nadu police
The police waited for him outside the examination centre and arrested him when he came out after completing the test.
In an incident straight out of a movie plot with a twist of irony, the Tamil Nadu police in Madurai arrested a 22-year-old man wanted in several criminal cases after he completed a written exam in a recruitment test for constables.
The man was arrested on Sunday but the incident came to light on Monday after he was produced in a local court which sent him to 15 days of police custody.
Vijay Kanth (22) had seven pending cases for various crimes including, theft, dacoity and robbery against him for the past six months, police said. On Sunday, a police team landed at his house only to be told that he was away at a examination centre for the Tamil Nadu Uniform Service Recruitment Board’s Commission (TNUSRBC). The TNUSRBC is the preliminary entrance exam to become a police constable in Tamil Nadu.
Other examinees at the exam centre were shocked to see a fellow candidate being escorted out and forced into a police vehicle. Vijay Kanth is accused of being involved in chain snatching, breaking and entering as well as other theft cases.
“Since there are seven cases pending against Vijay Kanth in Thallakulam, Koodal Nagar and Pudur police station in Madurai, we had formed a team to nab him. When the police team reached his house, Vijay Kanth was not there. When we interrogated the neighbourhood youth, they said he had been preparing for the police examination. So, we decided to visit the examination centre, a private college in Azhagarkoil, Madurai and arrested him,” said a police officer who did not want to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to media.
“We did not want to disturb the conduct of the exam so we waited and when he came out of the examination centre, we arrested him,” the officer said.
Vijay Kumar was subsequently produced before a local court on Monday, which has remanded him for 15 days of police custody.
