Two revolvers, two air pistols, 25 bullets, two knives, and ₹8.83 lakh were recovered from a house at Manjali during a raid jointly conducted by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Ernakulam Rural police on Monday. The Aluva East police arrested Riyas aka Thadi Riyas, 38, the houseowner, in this connection.
Riyas was reportedly a member of a gang led by Anas Perumbavoor. The raid was part of successive State-wide raids by the ATS along with various district police forces, besides in Tamil Nadu.
Riyas was booked under the Arms Act and will be produced in a court in Aluva on Tuesday. He is an accused in various criminal cases, including murder.
In a similar raid, a holder for revolver, handcuffs, and a box of pellets used in air pistols were recovered from the house of one Althaf of Elamakkara. He was also reportedly an aide of Anas and an accused in the Kochi beauty parlour shooting case.
Raids were also conducted at a house at Anamala in Tamil Nadu and a flat in Guruvayur belonging to another suspected aide of Anas. A sword was seized from the house in Tamil Nadu.
The ATS also raided the house of another suspected aide of Anas, identified as Nisar, at Manjeri and a resort at Rajakkad where he reportedly worked based on information that guns were being stored there illegally. The house of Nisar’s friend at Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu was also raided in association with the Tamil Nadu Police.
The backyard of a resort at Kalpetta in Wayanad where Anas and his aides had stayed was also dug up on suspicion that guns had been buried there. The Kalpetta police and the Wayanad bomb detection and disposal squad also participated in the operation.
The house of one Shaji Pappan, considered the right-hand man of Anas in Perumbavoor, was also raided on Monday morning. A hunt is on for other known accomplices who had gone into hiding on hearing about the raids.
The raids were held on the orders of ATS Deputy Inspector General Putta Vimladitya. District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena coordinated the operations within the Ernakulam rural police limits.
