KOCHI: A 15-member gang suspected to be from North India struck terror in Kochi for the second day in succession on Saturday night. The robbers broke into a house at SMP Road at Tripunithura, attacked its inmates and decamped with 50 sovereigns of gold and Rs 20,000 in cash, four mobile phones and ATM and credit cards. Ananthakumar, 49, of the house, who was attacked with an iron rod, suffered head injuries and was admitted to a private hospital.
His mother Swarnamma, 72, children Deepak, Roopak and wife Shari, 46, were tied up and kept in separate rooms. The neighbours came to know of the incident after Roopak, the younger child of Ananathakumar, managed to untie himself around 4 in the morning and raised an alarm. Abhilash George and Akhil Thomas reached the spot and informed the police. The police presume that the gangsters stuck the house around 2 a.m. On Friday night, a gang had forced their way into a house near Pulleppady and decamped with five sovereigns of gold after keeping the two inmates hostage at knife point.
The house at Tripunithura is located less than 100 metres from the railway track. City police commissioner M.P. Dinesh and other senior officials, forensic experts and dog squad visited the spot. Mr Dinesh told reporters that the special squad formed to crack the two incidents will be expanded and the culprits, suspected to be from North India, will be nabbed soon.
SPC Loknath Behera orders special probe into break-ins
State police chief Loknath Behera has announced that special investigation team will be formed to probe into the two incidents of robbery in Kochi in the past two days. The matter has been discussed with Kochi range IG P. Vijayan and the necessary steps will be initiated, he said. Although the DGP has announced the formation of a special investigation, senior police officials in the city are on tenterhooks following the successive robberies. The police is now investigating on the assumption that the same gang was behind the two incidents. The modus operandi was similar in the both the incidents, they said.
In both cases, the gang entered the houses after bending the steel rods of the windows. Police also feel that while a section of the gang entered the house others waited outside to monitor the situation. Police is worried over the propensity of the gang members to use violence against the inmates after entering the house. Police also feels that the gang has struck after gathering information about the area in a thorough manner. City police commissioner M.P. Dinesh said that preliminary investigations have suggested that the gang members spoke in Hindi as well as in broken Malayalam.
