Kochi: Notorious goon Bhai Nazeer was sent to Viyyur Central Jail in Thrissur on Monday after he and his aides were arrested from a hotel in Mysore.
The police were acting on the orders of the district collector who ordered the detention in view of the increasing number of fights between rival gangs.
According to the police, the detention of Nazeer may extend up to a year in a bid to keep the city safe.
Police fear there could be further clashes between the gangs of Nazeer and his rival Aneesh if the former is released any time soon.
Aneesh is also behind bars in connection with a case registered against him in Tamil Nadu. Nazeer has several cases of murder, attempted murder, and violation of the Arms Act against him.
Those who were arrested along with Nazeer were identified as Praveen Paul (25) of Mundamveli, Prajeesh Shanmugan (29) of Chembumukku near Kakkanad, Sreemon Mani (31) of Mattummal near Thevara, Nazeer alias Puli Nazeer (36) of Maradu, Ramshad Kamuruddeen (32) of Palluruthy and Sameesh Bhasi (25) of Thykkoodam near Vyttila.
Ramshad and Sameesh are accused of threatening goon Maradu Aneesh when he was brought to the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court. The other four are accused of robbery.
Police said all of them will be produced before the magistrate soon. The police have also received a production warrant to seek the custody of another goon, Sam, who is accused of throwing bombs at an apartment near Deshabhimani Junction.
He is in Madurai jail after being arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in connection with a smuggling case there.
How bhai and his gang were hunted
Kiran tom sajan | DC
Kochi: The hunt for notorious goon Bhai Nazeer and his gang was tricky for the Kochi city police as he shifted his hideouts frequently.
However the cops, on December 26, confirmed that he was staying in a hotel in Kozhikode as they tracked the phones of his gang members through a mobile tower there.
A special team, led by South sub inspector V. Gopakumar immediately left for Kozhikode and arrived at his hotel that evening.
But Nazeer and his gang had left Kozhikode already on a Karnataka-registered Bolero which left the cops clueless about their next destination.
“The security officer of the hotel tipped us off about their vehicle. But the gang members’ phones were switched off which left us with nothing to track. But since they had left in a Karnataka-registered vehicle we expected them to go to Mysore via Mangalore. Hence we started moving in that direction, but we were almost 30 minutes late,” said a police officer who was part of the squad.
Based on the information collected from toll booths, the police chased them until Kanhangad, but returned to Kozhikode as there was no clue about Nazeer’s vehicle.
Fortunately, one of the phones was switched on again at Mysore on December 28 night which alerted the police again.
“We reached Mysore at around midnight and confirmed their location as we found their vehicle. The gang was staying in two rooms – 203 and 231. We closed the doors of those rooms from outside and called the local police to send us a support team as we fell short of numbers.” the police said.
