A head constable clung to a moving Hyundai Creta for nearly 40 kilometres as police pursued suspected tobacco smugglers near Vilankurichi, and the video has since spread across social media with viewers calling him a real-life Singham.
The video runs like something out of a cop thriller, except nobody scripted it. A Coimbatore head constable named Velmurugan climbed onto the roof of a moving Hyundai Creta and stayed there for close to 40 kilometres while the car sped away from a police checkpoint, according to the Free Press Journal.
It started at Vilankurichi, where police had set up a vehicle check following a tip-off about tobacco products being moved through the area. The Creta, registered in Karnataka, didn't stop. Police say they suspected the car was carrying contraband and gave chase immediately. Somewhere in that pursuit, Velmurugan ended up on the roof, holding on as the driver kept going.
A sub-inspector trailing the car on a motorcycle radioed the control room and alerted ambulance services while the chase was still on. The footage that's now circulating online was reportedly shot from inside that ambulance, the car cutting through traffic at speed with a policeman flat against its roof.
The chase ended near a petrol station close to the Coimbatore district border, where police finally managed to stop the vehicle. Three men inside were detained on the spot and the car searched.
A senior officer said the tip-off had pointed to around 300 kg of gutkha and other tobacco products being transported in the vehicle. Police recovered roughly 200 kg of gutkha from the car once it was searched, according to the report.
The three men detained are reportedly from Rajasthan and had travelled through Karnataka before the checkpoint stop in Coimbatore. They're being questioned now, and police are still working out where the consignment came from and where it was headed.
What's turned this into a talking point beyond Tamil Nadu is the video itself. It's been shared widely, and a Hindi-language post quoted in the reporting called Velmurugan a real-life "Singham," the kind of stunt that wouldn't look out of place in a Tamil action film. That comparison has stuck online, with the clip getting passed around less as a crime story and more as spectacle.
There's no confirmation yet on what charges the three detained men might face, or how the seized gutkha connects to any larger supply chain police might be tracking. For now, the investigation into the source and intended destination of the material is still underway, and Coimbatore police haven't said when it's likely to wrap up.
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