On Monday, January 3, a passenger stood outside a ticket counter at the Thiruvanmiyur Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) railway station in Chennai, but there was no one behind the counter. The passenger then went to the rear of the room and saw the clerk Teekaram Meena, with his hands and feet tied and mouth gagged. After the passenger raised an alarm, Railway police and local people reached the spot. Meena told officials that a gang had tied him up and looted Rs 1.32 lakh from the counter.
However, what first appeared to be a robbery has turned out to be an elaborate ‘staging’ done by Meena and his wife. The Tamil Nadu police have now said the entire sum was recovered from Meena's house, and he and his wife Saraswathi, who colluded with him in the "drama", have been arrested.
“We established the evidence after examining CCTV footage. After a thorough enquiry, it was revealed that the clerk had enacted a drama claiming that he was gagged and tied up by an unidentified three-member gang,” said MV Jaya Gauri, DIG of Railways.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Jaya Gauri said it came to light that Meena was addicted to online gambling and had lost a substantial amount of money. “He borrowed a huge sum from his colleagues and friends to play online rummy. It was also revealed that his wife colluded with him in enacting the robbery drama," she said.
Saraswathi travelled from her house in Urapakkam in an auto-rickshaw in the early hours of Monday and got down near Tidel Park in the city, the DIG said. She then walked to the railway station, tied up and gagged her husband, and returned home with the cash bag which her husband had reportedly kept ready, said the police.
There is evidence that his wife has taken the money. Further investigation is under progress, Jaya Gauri said.