Chennai Port Heist: ₹35 Cr Worth Imported Dell Laptops Recovered, 6 Held

Chennai police have solved the case of a missing container which had Dell laptops worth Rs 35 crore, from the Chennai Port Trust terminal with the arrest of a sextet.

Chennai:Six persons were arrested in connection with a heist reported in Chennai Port Trust wherein the gang managed to decamp with Rs 35 crore worth Dell laptops, officials said on Friday. Police have also recovered 5,207 Dell Notebooks stolen along with the container and the trailer lorry used to transport it by the gang.

Police said the gang fabricated the transport documents to receive the container from a yard in Chennai Port Trust soon after it was imported from a foreign vessel earlier this month. The container was handled by Chennai International Terminals Pvt Ltd.

The incident came to light when Pon Esakkiappan, operations manager of the private firm went to receive the container on September 11. It was offloaded at the yard inside Chennai Port on September 7. Esakkiappan who was shocked to find the container with 5,230 Dell Notebooks missing while the port records showed that the container had already been handed over to the consignee.

Esakkiappan approached the Harbour police, seeking their assistance to locate the stolen container.

The police team which was tasked to unravel the mystery was quick to establish it as an insider job. The papers furnished by the unknown miscreants were fudged with the knowledge about the manifest held by the handling firm. The investigation led the cops to Ilavarasan, an employee of the handling firm.

"Probe revealed that Ilavarasan has managed to forge the documents requisite for receiving the container from the yard and handed it over to his accomplice Manikandan. The latter submitted the fabricated documents in the Port and managed to receive the container from the yard using a container trailer lorry," the police said in a statement.

Police said the probe team also located the stolen container and the lorry used for the crime and arrested the sextet while launching a manhunt for three others including Ilavarasan. Among the arrested three are from Chennai district, two are from Tiruvallur district while one is from Dindigul district.

All six were produced before a court on Friday and were remanded to judicial custody.