The Tamil Nadu police have apprehended seven people on Friday night in the Namakkal district in connection to the robbery of a cashew nut container. Among the arrested was Jeba Singh, who is the son of former ADMK Minister ST Chellapandian. Chellapandian was elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly as an ADMK member for the first time in 2011 from the Thoothukudi constituency. Having won the election for the first time, he was immediately appointed as the Minister of Labour Welfare in Jayalalithaa's cabinet. 

Chellapandian had again contested from the same constituency in the 2016 polls, only to concede the defeat from DMK's Geetha Jeevan. Jeba Singh and six others have been accused of robbing the truck that was carrying 12 tonnes of cashew nuts worth Rs 1.1 crore. The robbery has happened in the wee hours of Friday in Tuticorin and the culprits were arrested by the police in Namakkal on Friday night.

According to reports, the container truck was carrying cashew nuts that were packed to export to Japan. The truck was en route to the Tuticorin port from a cashew factory at Thuckalay in the Kanyakumari district. However, the truck was stopped by an unidentified gang near Pudukottai in Tuticorin district and the mob had threatened the driver at knifepoint and eventually take over the container truck. The gang had then driven the truck towards north while the truck driver informed the manager of the cashew factory that the truck has been robbed. 

Based on his information, the manager had filed a complaint with the Pudukottai police on Friday morning following which special teams were formed to locate and apprehend the culprits. It then came to the revelation that the robbers had damaged the GPS device in the truck due to which the cops had an ordeal in locating the truck. They had received inputs that the truck has headed to Namakkal district and strengthened the efforts to nab them. 

The Tuticorin police had alerted the Namakkal police to trace the whereabouts of the truck. With the details, the police officials of Namakkal had traced the truck and arrested the culprits on Friday night and busted their plot within hours. Former ADMK Minister Chellapandian's son Jebasingh and his gang members Manoharan, Vishnukumar, Marimuthu, Rajkumar, Pandi, and Senthil Kumar were detained and interrogated by the local police. 

After the investigations, the arrested culprits were handed over to the special team of Tuticorin police and the latter had apprehended all of them and took possession of the truck and a car used by the accused.  The Namakkal police had arrested the culprits at Thimmanayakan Patti near Rasipuram and Jebasingh has been named as the prime accused in the robbery. A case has been filed under appropriate sections and the police have initiated further proceedings to take the accused under judicial custody. Speaking to a news agency, Tuticorin Superintendent of Police S Jayakumar told that the accused and the truck and the car were brought to Tuticorin district.