Chennai: A mischievous advertisement offering ‘murder-for-hire’ scribbled on the back of a bus seat landed a repeat offender in police net. Police said he did it to get a rival rowdy into trouble.Officers initially suspected that the number could belong to another rowdy, but the CCTV cameras aboard the bus caught the real offender in action, landing him behind bars.Zakir Hussain, 33, a resident of Damodaran Nagar in Vyasarpadi, has 10 criminal cases against him, including those involving snatching and housebreaking. He scribbled an ad on the back of a seat in a route 2B electric bus operating between Kaviarasu Kannadasan Nagar in Kodungaiyur and Anna Square. It read, “Want to kill a rowdy in Vyasarpadi? Contact me,” followed by a mobile number. He also drew a machete alongside the message.After a photograph of the message went viral on social media, MKB Nagar police registered a case and launched an investigation. Initial probe led police to one Vicky, a Vyasarpadi resident involved in petty offences. During inquiries, police learnt that Hussain and Vicky had a longstanding rivalry arising from their involvement in criminal activities.Suspecting that someone had deliberately used Vicky’s identity to implicate him, police examined CCTV footage from the bus. The footage showed Hussain scribbling the message on the seat, helping police identify and trace him.During questioning, Hussain told police that he had written the message while he was drunk, as he suspected that Vicky had taken a stolen mobile phone. He was subsequently produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
