COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore district police on Saturday arrested a four-member gang, including an Army personnel, for attempting to rob a Kerala-based businessman near Madukkarai on Salem-Kochi highway in the early hours of Friday.
The arrested people are K Sivadas (29), A Rameshbabu (37), M Ajaykumar (24), and M Vishnu (28), all natives of Palakkad in Kerala. Vishnu is an Indian Army Sepoy. He had come on leave on June 4 and did not return to work. Police said, M Aslam Siddiq of Ernakulam was returning home with his three employees after purchasing computer accessories from Bengaluru.
The gangsters came in three cars and blocked Siddiq’s car on the highway. As they started breaking the windshield, the person at the wheel sped away and stopped at the L&T toll plaza, escaping from the gangsters. Upon Siddiq’s complaint, the police arrested the gangsters.
Subsequent probe revealed the gangsters had hatched a plot to rob large amounts of money being moved illegally (hawala) as they assumed no one would file a complaint in such a case. They were later lodged at the Coimbatore central prison.