Tamil Nadu: Pastor Vijayan Samuel Of Christian Brothers Assembly Arrested By Cops For Serial Theft Of Bikes

Subramaniyapuram police near Madurai have arrested a 38-year old Christian pastor Vijayan Samuel for stealing bikes, Tamil TV Channel Polimer reported.

Vijayan Samuel, who originally hails from Theni, is the founding-pastor of Christian Brothers Assembly located at Thanakkankulam on the outskirts of Madurai.

According to the police, Vijayan Samuel, who was running the church for the last two years. He was known for delivering sermons on right conduct and righteous living. faced financial difficulties in running the church due to lack of patronage from the followers during the lockdown period.

Despite not staging congregation services for the last few months, he had to pay rentals for the church building. Hence, he resorted to stealing bikes, especially targeting women’s scooters with keys in the ignition especially commercial areas such as SS Colony, Subramaniyapuram and Thirumanagalam.

Vijayan Samuel used to park his motorbike in the vicinity and then ride away with the stolen two-wheeler. He would subsequently return to pick up his bike.

Using a copy of the vehicle records, the pastor would pledge them for money. He is said to have given three such stolen vehicles to his family members in Cumbum and a couple of them to people who took part in his prayer services.

A special police squad, led by Inspector S. Priya, launched a search after receiving complaints of many missing bikes missing in the last six months.

Samuel finally ran out of luck when he took a such stolen vehicle to a mechanic on Bypass Road in the city recently for repair.

The mechanic was informed by one of his customer recently that his bike was stolen . The customer soon arrived and confirmed that it was his stolen vehicle. They both alerted the Subramanipuram police, Vijayan Samuel was arrested when he returned to take possession of the vehicle on Saturday.

A second-hand vehicle dealer, Selvam in Tirupparankundra,who is said to have collaborated with the pasto,r was also arrested.