The Hindu : Gangsters put on ideologue cloak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Gangsters put on ideologue cloak

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI JAN. 1 . Making a fast buck and settling down in life seemed the objective of the members of a gang, who masqueraded as ``Tamil ideologues''. They were arrested in connection with various incidents of crime. The poor economic conditions of the "oppressed sections" came in handy for the gangsters to form an organisation. But they did not meet with much success, says a police officer. The gang decided to ``raise protests against human rights violations'' and ``demand democratic functioning in every sphere of activity''.

Among the four persons (part of the gang), arrested in connection with the bid to loot the State Bank of India at Besant Nagar here, after murdering the deputy manager of the branch, in April last year, is one who was involved in the attack on the Vellitiruppur police station in December 1998, preliminary investigation has revealed. The accused, who was enlarged on bail in that case, jumped bail and a warrant of arrest was pending, when he was nabbed again, in connection with the bank robbery case. More information is likely when the other three are also arrested.

As the gang is loosely knit and the members are spread across the State, meetings held by virulent Tamil organisations, including one at Chidambaram, served as venues for them to come in contact with one another. In one instance, the gang won the confidence of a person, belonging to Sivaganga and settled at Tambaram here, assuring him that he would be ``suitably rewarded'' if he accompanied the members on a `mission'. He is now cooling his heels in prison in connection with the bank robbery case.

The house of a painting contractor at Shenoynagar here was used for meetings of the ``like-minded persons''. With a view to concealing their identity, the gang members, it is said, assumed different names for committing crimes, thus making the police job tougher in probing the cases. The police suspect that the gang was involved in a few crimes reported at Royapuram and Thiruvottiyur here. Their possible involvement in incidents in other parts of the State is also being probed.

The members brought three bags, purchased from a showroom at T.Nagar, to carry the cash from the SBI — at the time of the incident there was Rs. 27 lakhs in the branch — but they did not succeed, as the alarm went off.

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