Cops in 3 dists working in tandem to nab culprits

Five days after a gang, allegedly from outside the state, looted Rs 32.6 lakh from various ATMs, police officers in three districts have adopted a coordinated effort to track them down.

KOCHI/KOTTAYAM: Five days after a gang, allegedly from outside the state, looted Rs 32.6 lakh from various ATMs, police officers in three districts have adopted a coordinated effort to track them down.
The Ernakulam city police and the Kottayam and Thrissur police have joined hands, under the coordination of senior police officers in Kochi, to track down the gang members who robbed ATMs in Irumpanam in Kochi and Chalakudy in Thrissur besides making similar attempts in Kottayam last Friday. Sources said a meeting of the investigation officers and other members of the teams was held in Kochi the other day. 

“Each investigation team in the three districts has been tasked with probing specific aspects of the case. The Kottayam police are looking into the vehicle theft incident, while the Thrissur police are trying to identify the gang. The Kochi police are trying to locate the persons with the help of the Cyber Cell,” said sources.

Kottayam SP Hari Shankar said the investigation was going on in full swing. “We interrogated some persons who we suspect of having information about the burglaries. The interrogation of some migrant workers is still going on,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Kottayam police interrogated five migrant workers residing at Devankavala. The police had received information that a total of eight migrant workers had arrived in Kottayam last week. However, three of them went missing since Thursday, a day before the burglaries.

The group, which had been residing near the Thrissur railway station earlier, was working at a construction site at Devankavala in Kottayam.  

Kochi city police commissioner M P Dinesh said the investigation was at a crucial stage and some information could not be revealed at present.

“There will be some results in the coming days,” Dinesh said, adding though separate cases had been registered in the three districts in connection with the crime, the officers were coordinating with each other in the probe.

The incident

After stealing a pick-up van from Kottayam in the the early hours of Friday, the gang, it is suspected, attempted to loot two ATMs in Kottayam. Later, it went to Ernakulam and looted C22 lakh from an SBI ATM in Irumpanam. Another suspected theft attempt was made at an ATM in Kalamassery. The gang then stole C10.60 lakh from a South Indian Bank ATM at Chalakudy. Then the gang dumped the vehicle at Chalakudy and vanished.

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