Four members of ‘quotation gang’ held

Key accused still absconding

May 22, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:39 am IST - KOCHI:

The Tripunithura police on Thursday arrested four members of a “quotation gang” in connection with the murder attempt on a person near here on April 17.

The accused were identified as Shoukath T, a native of Arakkakadavu, Biju T.L and Prajith NC and Dileep Kumar of Thiruvananthapuram. They were taken into custody following a probe into the attack on one Rajiv P.Gopal, a resident of Eroor near here.  The police are on the lookout for one Ajayan, the key accused in the case, who hired the gang for a sum of Rs.1.30 lakh.

 According to police, Ajayan had an altercation with Rajiv over a property dispute and approached Shoukath, an accused in several criminal cases, to get him eliminated. Based on this, the gang led by Shoukath hatched a plan to kill Rajiv on his way back from workplace.

“After a couple of futile attempts, they finally zeroed in on Rajiv near the SN junction on April 17 and attacked him with metal rods and stabbed him several times. However he survived the attempt due to timely intervention by locals’’, said Baiju Poulose, Circle Inspector of police.

Following this, the gang members went into hiding and on a tip-off, the police tracked the gang. While three persons were traced to a hide-out near Tripunithura, Dileep was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram. “Realising that the police were after the gang, Ajayan promised to pay Rs one lakh not to reveal his name’’, the official added.

The accused have been booked under IPC 307 and remanded in custody.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.