TIRUNELVELI: Claiming that they are being harassed by the police after the incident where an elderly couple fought off masked robbers a few days ago, residents of Kalyanipuram submitted a petition to Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish in Tirunelveli on Monday.
The residents alleged that the Kadayam police are coercing the people, who are in no way connected with the robbery, to confess to the crime. “The incident in which the sickle-wielding robbers tried to attack and rob the elderly couple - Shanmugavel and Senthamarai - happened on August 11. Since then, a police team comprising 10 personnel have taken 75 persons including into custody by trespassing into their houses between 1 am and 2 am,” read the petition.
They added that the police had also humiliated the women and children at the time of the arrest. “False cases have been foisted against the youth. The police should arrest those who are really involved in the robbery,” the residents said in the petition. TNIE’s attempts to contact SP Arun Sakthikumar did not yield any result.