KOCHI: Triggering panic, armed burglars struck for the second straight day at a residence near the Tripunithura Hill Palace and decamped with gold and cash after tying up the members of the family early morning on Saturday. According to the officers with the Hill Palace Police Station, a gang comprising around 15 members broke into the house of Nannappilli Anandakumar near the Hill Palace around 2.30 am.
They tied up the family members and decamped with 50 sovereigns of gold, three mobile phones and `20,000 cash. The gang tied up Anandakumar, 50, his mother Swarnamma, 72, wife Sharimol, 46, and their two children before escaping with the valuables. Anandakumar, who resisted the theft attempt, suffered head injuries after one of the gang members attacked him with an iron rod. He has been admitted to the ICU of a city hospital.
The gang entered the two-storeyed house after removing the window grills of the kitchen. Family members woke up after the gang called them. Brandishing knife, they tied their hands and locked them up in different rooms of the house. Sharimol was locked up inside one of the bathrooms. Later, the burglars decamped with the gold and cash kept in the almirah. As per the statement given by Anandakumar, three mobile phones were also missing. One of the children who was tied up in one of the rooms on the first floor somehow untied the knot and freed others.
The neighbours reached the spot around 4.30 am after hearing the screams of the family members and alerted the police. “According to the statements of Anandakumar, the gang members were mostly speaking in Hindi while a few of them spoke in Malayalam,” said officers. City Police Commissioner M P Dinesh and other top police officers visited the spot. Dog Squad and Fingerprint Bureau sleuths examined the crime scene. On Friday, armed miscreants attacked an elderly couple and took away their gold ornaments from their residence at Pullepady. Police suspect the involvement of the same gang in both the burglaries.