A gang of inter-State bandits, who has been on the prowl in Kochi over the past few days, struck terror for the second consecutive day on Saturday by breaking into a house, assaulting inmates, and looting valuables.
According to the police, the robbers decamped with 50 sovereigns of gold and ₹20,000 in cash, four mobile phones, and ATM and credit cards from the house of Anand Kumar on SMP Road at Thripunithura. The incident took place around 2.30 a.m. The gang broke into the house, located at an isolated area and close to the railway track, by cutting through a window grill.
After forcing their way into the house, the gang unleashed a violent attack on Kumar, 49, hitting him on the head with an iron rod. Kumar, who sustained severe injuries, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. Apart from Kumar, the burglars tied up his mother Swarnamma, 72, children Deepak, 19, Roopak, 14, and wife Sharimol, 46, and locked them up in separate rooms.
The preliminary investigation pointed to the involvement of a gang from central India in the incident. According to the victims’ statements, the gang members spoke Hindi and broken Malayalam.
The incident came to light later in the morning when Roopak, the younger child of Kumar, managed to untie himself and raised an alarm. On hearing the commotion, Abhilash George and Akhil Thomas, who live in the neighbourhood, rushed to the spot and alerted the police.
IGP visits crime spot
Inspector General of Police (Ernakulam Range) P. Vijayan and other senior police officers visited the crime scene. Besides, a team of forensic experts and a dog squad inspected the spot and collected evidence.
Taking a serious note of the incident, the police have constituted a special team under the City Police Commissioner to probe the incident. Also, teams have been despatched to various States to trace the gang members.
“To begin with, we are collecting details of similar operations reported elsewhere in the State over the past few years. On the preventive side, steps have been initiated to raise the presence of the police in all locations, especially during night,” Mr. Vijayan said.
This was the second incident of robbery in the city in the last two days. On Friday night, robbers had forced their way into a house near Pulleppady and decamped with five sovereigns of gold after keeping the two inmates hostage at knife point.
The back-to-back cases have put the police on the edge. They appear to be worried over the gang’s propensity to unleash violence against ordinary people. “In both the cases, robbers broke in by either bending or removing the steel rods of windows, and while a section of the gang entered the house, others waited outside, monitoring the situation. They must have planned each of those operations after gathering information about the areas in a thorough manner,” said a senior police officer.
