The police on Sunday nabbed four persons accused in a petrol bunk robbery case near Kadampuliyur and seized from them a genuine German-make pistol and a sharp-edged weapon, along with nine live ammunitions.
Revealing this to presspersons here on Sunday, C. Sylendra Babu, Inspector General of Police (North Zone), said that the pistol with all taxes would cost about Rs 10 lakh. In the cylinder of the pistol that could hold six bullets, three shots were already fired.
They were also having another fully loaded cylinder and all the bullets bore the Indian ordnance factory mark.
The IG said that it was at the instance of two locals K. Natarajan (29) of Thoppukollai and P. Ramarajan (27) of Pavaikulam, Kadampuliyur, two offenders G. Prakash (23) and P. Dinesh, operating from Mumbai, were hired for committing the offence.
On their way to Cuddalore, the Mumbai-based hirelings purchased the pistol from Bihar and it was financed by Natarajan. Actually, they conspired to loot the house of a lorry owner at Panruti but could not succeed because the house was well guarded by security personnel and dogs.
However, not to be left empty handed they targeted the petrol bunk on the Chennai-Kumbakonam highways at Kollukarankuttai on February 19, tied up the two employees G. Shanmugam and K. Karthikeyan and took away Rs 55,000 in cash at gun-point.
On information, a special team immediately chased the culprits but of them only Selvathirumal was caught and from him Rs 14,000 in cash was seized. Others ran into the cashew groves.
While fleeing, the culprits fired at the police personnel and in the instance one Gopalakrishnan, a local person who had come to assist the police, sustained a bullet injury on the right knee.
The IG further said that personal enmity or the lure of easy money would have prompted the local persons to collude with the rowdy elements from Mumbai. Their antecedents are now being probed.
In fact, the special police team comprised efficient personnel from the six districts, including that of Villupuram, Cuddalore, Thiruvannamalai and Vellore.
The police came to know about their whereabouts when the four-member gang waylaid M. Jaisankar (28) at Thoppukollai in the early hours on Sunday (February 26) and at gun point took away the moped, a gold chain weighing one-and-half sovereigns and Rs 2,000 in cash from him.
On the complaint of the victim at Panruti, police alerted the special team that swiftly swung into action and rounded up the gang near a graveyard at the Gedilam bridge in Panruti.
The team took the gang members by surprise and overpowered them before they could access their pistol, thus averting a major show-down. The IG and Superintendent of Police (Cuddalore) P. Pakalavan lauded the special team and presented them with cash rewards.
The IG also said that the police were on the lookout for some more accomplices who helped the offenders with logistics.
