City police have ascertained the identities of two more bank robbery suspects, who were killed the recent police encounter at a Velachery apartment. One of them was wanted by Bihar police in connection with the murder of the head of a math there, police said.
According to police sources, one of the voter ID cards bearing the name Harish Kumar belonged to one of the five men gunned down in the encounter on Thursday morning. Teams that were sent to Bihar for probe established the real identity of Harish as Rajiv Kumar of Milkipur village under Hilsa police limits in Nalanda district of Bihar.
In September 2009, Rajiv had shot dead Rameshwar Das, the head of Kabir Mutt located in Fatuah in Bihar. Rajiv, who was working as an assistant at the mutt, fled the village after killing him. He was also suspected to be involved in the armed bank robbery in 2010 at two places in Mumbai, sources added.
Another suspect Vinay Prasad, whose voter ID was recovered from the house, has been identified by his relatives from Bihar. Police said the ID was original and Vinay Prasad was from Bahapar in Nalanda district, Bihar.
Prasad is suspected to have come to Chennai a few years ago and worked as an autorickshaw driver. He was the only one in the group of five suspects who could converse reasonably well in Tamil. Information on how he befriended the rest of the suspects is under investigation, sources said.
Earlier, the gang's kingpin Sujay Kumar Rai alias Vinod Kumar was identified by his family members who came to Chennai on Friday night and took his body by air on Sunday morning. Rest of the two suspects whose bodies are in the mortuary of the Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital is yet to be identified.
