Kochi: Tamil Nadu Police in association with Palakkad police arrested all the 12 accused behind the highway robbery attempt and attack on a car travelled by Malayalis on the Salem-Kochi Highway near Madukkarai. According to police sources, the 12-member gang of robbers was traced with the help of the visuals captured by the youth in the car that was attacked on June 14.
Three teams of Madukkarai police camped in Palakkad to trace all accused in the gang. On Friday, the probe team arrested the first accused Jithin, Rajeev, Aneesh Kumar, Hareesh Kumar, Jinu, Nandakumar and Jijeesh. Soon after launching a probe, the police arrested four members of the gang- Ramesh, Ajay, Vishnu and Sivadas from Palakkad's Chittoor. These arrests led police to trace other accused. Later, Kalpathy native Vishnu was landed in the police net.
The accused who were booked in drug and robbery cases acquainted with each other in jail and formed the robbery gang. It is learnt that their first robbery attempt was foiled on June 14 because of the brave move of the Malayalis. The gang targeted the car of Ernakulam native Aslam Siddique on Kochi-Salem Highway. Apart from Aslam, his friend Charles and his staff Nithin and Akshay were in the car.
The car robbery attempt made headlines after the visuals of the masked men attacking a car with sharp weapons aired on news channels. According to police, the gang had targeted a vehicle transporting hawala money and gold. But they mistakenly attacked the car of the Keralites after failing to identify their target.
The 12-member gang arrived in three vehicles, using fake number plates, and the primary accused Jithin is a habitual offender from Palakkad, police. Another accused is also involved in drug cases.
Kochi natives Aslam Siddique and others were returning from Bengaluru after procuring computers for their office when they were attacked. The attack took place near the L&T bypass in Madhukarai station limits.
