Aluva police on Sunday held a four-member gang which used to target devotees taking bath at the Aluva Manappuram. The arrested were identified as Balakrishnan Nair, 36, a native of Eramallur, Anish, 36, of Keeymadu, Binu, 36, of Marampilly, Aluva, and Shan, 33, of Kaduthuruthy.
According to the police, the gang attacked an elderly man, Muraleedharan Pillai, who was washing clothes at the bathing ghat. “They stole ₹4,000 and a mobile phone that the victim had kept in the pocket of his shirt at the river bank. Seeing them stealing, the elderly man came running, but the gang escaped after assaulting him,” the police said.
The police were alerted and the four were arrested half-an-hour later from a location near the Aluva Bank Junction. They recovered the stolen money and mobile phone and handed them over to the victim. “They used to loot people who come to the Manappuram to take bath as an easy way to find money for drinking. The four were produced before a magistrate who remanded them in judicial custody,” the police said.
