A remote acacia plantation in Thonakkal on the outskirts of the city was the staging area for the highway robbery spree that struck fear in residents last week.
According to police investigators, the secluded hideout had helped the six-member armed gang responsible for the robberies remain off the police radar for long and operate unimpeded for months along national and State highways in the district.
They have arrested five of them. The main accused is still at large.
The unrestrained spell of armed looting targeted at least one Technopark employee, who was seriously injured, several migrant workers, few passers-by, and a truck driver on Wednesday.
The incident had cast doubts on the local law enforcement’s capacity to curb violent crime, exposed yawning gaps in criminal intelligence collection, and stirred a sense of insecurity among wage earners who work late shifts.
The crime was especially worrying for families used to late-night film shows and night-time outings and dining.
Officers said young men accused of the sensational crime hailed from Boothathan colony in Mangalapuram.
They were essentially school dropouts attracted to a growing drug-fuelled delinquent subculture that worshipped gangsterism.
From poor families
The men hailed from dysfunctional families living on the edge of poverty.
Armed with swords and daggers, the accused had set off from their plantation hide-out on two fast motorbikes, riding triple, to a friend’s party at Christian Konam colony in Panavoor in Nedumangadu, the police said.
Investigators said the bout of violent highway robberies by the alcohol- and drug-impaired youth commenced at 1 a.m. at Venjaranmoodu, spanned two taluks, and ended three hours later at the Medical College Hospital compound when a police patrol chanced to arrest two of them when they attempted to waylay a bystander.
The police said the loot recovered from the suspects included several costly mobile phones, cash and other valuables.
Internal enquiry
The crime has also pitted the Mangalapuram police at the centre of an internal enquiry focussed on finding out why they had not arrested the gang members who had a history of violent crime in the Technopark and Kazhakuttam localities.
