Chennai police gun down five suspected bank robbers

February 23, 2012

gun_Feb23Chennai, February 23: Five men suspected to be behind two bank robberies in Chennai in the last one month were killed in a gun battle with the city police atVelachery in the wee hours of Thursday.

Police commissioner J K Tripathy said the gun battle lasted for 15 minutes, from 1am to 1.15am, leaving two police inspectors injured and all the five suspects dead. The suspects were identified as Chandrika Rey from West Bengal, and Vinod Kumar, Vinay Prasad, Abhay Kumar and Harish Kumar from Bihar. Two of them are former students of an engineering college in the city suburbs. Police recovered five guns and bundles of cash from the suspects.

Two days after the gang struck a branch of Indian Overseas Bank in Keelkattalai on Monday, city police commissioner J K Tripathy had held a press conference on Wednesday to release a video of a suspect allegedly doing a recce at a nationalised bank. "With people's cooperation, we will nab them soon," he had said.

Chennai went to sleep with that reassurance, and woke up to the tale of a bloody encounter. Tripathy said on Thursday that his team got a tip-off around midnight about the suspects staying on the ground floor of a three-storey house on A L Mudali Street in Velachery. "We immediately sent a team of 14 led by deputy commissioner of police (Adyar) M Sudhakar and two assistant commissioners Kannan (Madipakkam) and Manickavel (Guindy)," the commissioner said.

The team surrounded the house and three police inspectors took position by the windows, while three other inspectors targeted the main door of the house. The commissioner said the suspects opened fire at the police team at 1am, injuring inspectors P Ravi (Teynampet) and Christian Jayasil (Thoraipakkam). The police team broke open the window and the door and opened fire at the suspects. The gun battle left the suspects badly injured. They were rushed to the Government General Hospital, where the doctors declared them dead on arrival. The injured inspectors were admitted to the Government Royapettah Hospital.

Police sources said they got information from a person, who didn't want to reveal his identity, about the robbers. "After seeing the suspect's photograph released by the police commissioner on Wednesday, the informer claimed that the suspect was staying at his relative's house on A L Mudali Street, Nethaji Road near the Tamil Nadu Housing Board quarters in Velachery," a source said.

Police sources said the robbers stayed in the house since last December after paying an advance of Rs 20,000. Though the incident happened in a residential area, no one in the neighbourhood appeared to know what had happened. Reporters who reached the spot soon after the incident were kept at bay till 5.45am.

Finally, when they were let in, the suspects' 'den' turned out to be a 300 sqft portion of a house, with a bedroom, a hall, a bathroom and a kitchen. Among the blood-soaked belongings of the suspects was a red, black and white checked shirt one of the suspects was seen wearing in the video clip released by the police commissioner hardly 10 hours before the gun battle. The suspect, the police identified, was Vinod Kumar, doing a recce at a nationalised bank.

Three more portions of the house were occupied by families. Police are questioning the house owners, brothers Deivendran and Murugan. As the court has directed a magistrate probe should be conducted in the police encounters, police have informed the chief metropolitan magistrate about the incident.


About a month before the gang struck the IOB branch at Keelkattalai, a branch of Bank of Baroda was robbed on January 23 last. The robbers took away Rs 19 lakh from BoB and Rs 14 lakh from IOB in a swift operation by holding the bank staffs and customers at gunpoint.


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News Network
July 4,2020

Kolkata, Jul 4: Two people were killed and around four injured when the bombs they were allegedly manufacturing went off inside a house in Murshidabad district, a senior police officer said on Saturday.

Their identities were yet to be established as the condition of those injured and undergoing treatment at a hospital was still "critical", he said.

The thatched roof of the house, where they were allegedly making bombs, also blew off in the explosion, which occurred at Suti town in Jangipur subdivision of the district around 9:00 pm on Friday, the officer said.

The house has been damaged completely, and its owner is on the run, he said.

As of now, the wife of the house owner is being questioned in connection with the incident, the officer added.

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News Network
April 12,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 12: Two police officials have been booked for murder in connection with the alleged custodial death of a theft accused in Bengaluru rural district, police said on Saturday.

A case of murder has been registered against inspector Raghu and sub-inspector Rakesh C for the alleged custodial death of Munikulla on Friday afternoon, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru rural district, Ravi D Channannavar told reporters.

"Yes. A case has been registered and transferred to CID," he said.

Munikulla, a resident of Nadavatti village, was picked up by the police on April 7, his wife Dhanalakshmi told the media on Saturday.

"Policemen took my husband with them. They beat him up and killed him," she said.

Alleging that Munikulla was a victim of police high- handedness, Hoskote MLA Sharath Bachegowda said he had lodged a complaint with the state DGP Praveen Sood demanding a CID inquiry into the case.

An FIR was registered against Munikulla on Friday evening based on a complaint by the cashier of the liquor store, who had claimed that the CCTV footage showed victim's involvement.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

Muzaffarpur, Jan 8: There is no evidence of murder of children in Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home, the CBI on Wednesday told the Supreme Court.

The probe agency told the apex court that two skeletons were recovered from the home's premises which were later, in forensic investigation, found to be of a woman and a man.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde accepted the status report of the CBI and allowed two officers to be relieved from the investigation team.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said investigation was done on allegations of rape and sexual assault of children and charge sheets have been filed before the courts concerned.

Venugopal said the children, who were alleged to have been murdered, were later traced and found to be alive.

He said the CBI has investigated cases of 17 shelter homes in Bihar and charge sheets have been filed in 13 of them, while in four cases the preliminary inquiry was conducted and later closed as no evidence of any wrongdoing was found.

The probe agency, in its status report filed on Monday, said no incriminating evidence proving commission of any criminal offence could be gathered in four preliminary enquiries and as such no FIR has been registered.

The CBI had also said the Bihar government has been requested to take departmental action and action of cancellation of registration and blacklisting of concerned NGOs by providing them the result of investigation, i.e., the CBI report.

Several girls were allegedly sexually and physically assaulted at a shelter home run by an NGO in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Following the report, a petition was filed in the apex court seeking lodging of an FIR and court-monitored probe by an independent agency into the allegations.

The plea filed by journalist Nivedita Jha through advocate Fauzia Shakil has sought "registration of FIR and independent investigations or court monitored probe into the affairs of these 14 (other) shelter homes in Bihar mentioned in the TISS report".

The apex court had directed the CBI to probe the offences under the Information Technology Act regarding the video recordings of the alleged assault on girls at the shelter home.

It had also directed the agency to investigate the role of "outsiders who were involved and facilitated the sexual assaults on the inmates", after administering them intoxicants and also against those who allegedly indulged in trafficking of girls from the shelter home.

The apex court had earlier directed the CBI to complete its probe into the alleged murder of 11 girls at the shelter home and asked it to file a status report.

The SC had transferred the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi.

Earlier, the top court had directed the CBI to conduct a probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 16 other shelter homes in Bihar which were flagged in the TISS report.

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