Trigger happy TN Cops ?: Chennai bank robbers killed in encounter

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article2922641.ece?homepage=true

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Five persons suspected to be involved in the armed bank robberies that recently rocked the city were killed here in a police encounter early on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off from a person, who had seen the CCTV camera grab of one of the suspects that was released on Wednesday, the police raided a Housing Board colony on Nethaji Road in Velachery around 1 a.m. on Thursday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (South) Shanmugarajeshwaran said that there was a brief exchange of fire. A 14-member police team spilt into two groups and fired through the windows of the one-bedroom apartment, he said.

The police eventually managed to break-in through the main door. Two policemen, Ravi and Christian Jayasil, were injured in the crossfire.

All the five suspects, estimated to be around 30-35 years old, were killed. They are all believed to be from Bihar. A West Bengal driving licence was recovered. The victims have been identified as Vinod Kumar, Chandri Khare, Vinay Prasad, Abhay Kumar, and Harish Kumar.

Inside their room, two bags containing wads of cash were found. The bags also contained five pistols and two revolvers, police said.

Though the men had been living in the colony for at least the last three months, neighbours said that they never noticed anything unusual. None of them were also aware of the gunfight. They all slept peacefully and woke up on Thursday morning to find their neighbourhood teeming with police personnel.

The injured police inspectors were admitted to the Royapettah Government Hospital. The victims were taken to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for post-mortem.

Residents shocked

Residents of Tamil Nadu Housing Board colony in Velachery woke up to a shock on Thursday morning. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board Colony, located on the Adambakkam–Velachery border, was created 25 years and has nearly 1,000 plots. A bunch of tenements stand out among independent houses, constructed by the plot owners.

It was in Plot No. 335 that the encounter took place between midnight on Wednesday and 1 a.m. on Thursday. While those living in flats and independent houses very close to the scene of the encounter heard noises, some of them identifying it clearly as gunfire, some others had no clue about the encounter until early morning on Thursday.

“A team of policemen arrived at 10 p.m. immediately, the men inside the house closed the windows and switched off the light,” recalled Yesodha Nagappan, living in a house opposite to the flat, in which the encounter took place.

According to her, the policemen spent nearly two hours trying to bring the men outside their flat. “We did not know what happened after that. We were instructed not to come out of our house. We were watching through the grille gate and later went inside the house,” she said, adding that minutes later, they heard loud noises. Her elder daughter, a college student, said it was clear that noise was gunfire.

A policeman, whose hand was soaked in blood passed by her house. The family helped the police team by providing drinking water and also ‘dupattas’, shawls and towels to the policemen while taking away the bodies of the suspects. A cook, Ms. Yesodha was unable to go her employer’s house on Thursday.

According to them, the young men had moved into the flat only recently. The flat owner lived in the same block on the second floor. L. Mahesh, living in flat in the same block, said around midnight he heard loud noises. Fearing that culprits were trying to break into their house, he rushed to the door and went back to bed after he found that it was safe. The noises continued for a brief while before subsiding. Working in a real estate company, Mahesh had moved into the flat with his parents only four months ago.

M. Gnanamurthy, living in an independent house on A.L. Muthali Second Street – the link to the TNHB flats from Nethaji Road, said he returned from work on his Honda Activa scooter around 11.30 p.m. As police had cordoned off the entire area, he took another route to reach his house. An electrician, he said he went to bed immediately after reaching home, only to be woken up by loud noises.

Another resident living near the flat of the young men, said they did just not have any idea about the incident till they were woken up by the hustle caused by policemen and media early on Thursday. A staff of a Children’s Centre of Integrated Child Development Services in Guindy, she said the family did not hear any sound in the night. As news about the incident flashed on television channels, residents from different areas of Adambakkam and Velachery visited TNHB Colony.

those bleddy naarthies creating havoc in velachery TNHB flats. How dare these Hindians come into good old chennai and make a ruckus?

doofus_maximus wrote:those bleddy naarthies creating havoc in velachery TNHB flats. How dare these Hindians come into good old chennai and make a ruckus?

===> Have you ever heard of Tamil gangs going to NI exclusively to engage in criminal acts? Not knowing Hindi and the lack of experience dealing with NIs prevents Tamil criminals from even trying. For a typical Tamil who never left SI, North India is truly an alien land.

Whereas, a North Indian does not think that way when he goes to SI. For him Chennai is a part of India where he can move around freely by talking in Hindi. And he does not feel uncomfortable among Madaraasis. So no wonder these Biharis had no problems walking into a bank in Chennai and robbing the place at gunpoint.

MulaiAzhagi wrote:

doofus_maximus wrote:those bleddy naarthies creating havoc in velachery TNHB flats. How dare these Hindians come into good old chennai and make a ruckus?

===> Have you ever heard of Tamil gangs going to NI exclusively to engage in criminal acts? Not knowing Hindi and the lack of experience dealing with NIs prevents Tamil criminals from even trying. For a typical Tamil who never left SI, North India is truly an alien land.

Whereas, a North Indian does not think that way when he goes to SI. For him Chennai is a part of India where he can move around freely by talking in Hindi. And he does not feel uncomfortable among Madaraasis. So no wonder these Biharis had no problems walking into a bank in Chennai and robbing the place at gunpoint.

Dear Sar Bhoj Paparajan, have you heard of Don Varadarajan Mudaliar?

Varadarajan started as a porter in Mumbai's Victoria Terminus Station in the 1960s. His emergence in the underworld was largely through bootlegging and matka operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varadarajan_Mudaliar

He went to Bombay, worked as a porter, lived there for many years, learnt the local language and culture and got comfortable with the surroundings. Then he became bad. He did not leave TN to go Mumbai with a specific plan to do bootlegging or other criminal acts.

But this NI gang came down to Chennai just to steal.

I was not referring to DMK guys like A. Raja, Kanimozhi or T.R. Baalu when I mentioned about the Tamil gangs going to NI to engage in criminal acts.

probably the NI robbers saw that there is more wealth down in Chennai and unsuspecting Chenaaites wandering around

glad they were apprehended ..wonder if the shoot out was deliberate ?

Cops usually will put it down to confrontation and " he drew the gun first "

While one can appreciate the resolve of TN police, but they could have apprehended them without killing. Most of the comments in hindu were talking great about the cops but they have doubts whether they followed due process. Few comments were indicating if big thieves like Kani,Raja are still alive/out, why these small thieves are killed unnecessarily..

This 'encounter' is most likely staged where even the neighbors did not hear the gun shots.

All we know is the 'police' version that claims the "North Indians" are the bank thieves. Even then it is amazing that they cannot capture even one of the folks alive.

This is done to shore up the image of TN police who have been ridiculed fair and square for the recent crime spree in Chennai.

Mr.Tripathy is known for encounter killings during the previous reign of JJ. In his interview, he informed that police had to break the door to get inside the apt. But when Hindu reporters visited, they find there was no damage to the doors and the TV was intact and only few bullet holes in the wall. Unless the police were fine marksmen they could have not killed all the suspects shooting thru the window. May be JJ is sending a message to Sasi (not to speak the truth as she is being questioned in a legal case in Bangalore- an indirect threat about her husband who is in custody!)

>> JJ is sending a message

Are you really sayinh jayalaltha ordered it? Be realistic

Be realistic

>>>Sayeth the poster who sees a massive movement seething to break away from india any minute..