5-member gang arrested for robbing businessmen

COIMBATORE: The rural police on Thursday arrested a five-member gang for robbing two businessmen from Kerala of Rs 10,400 and a car.
Police identified them as M Ravikumar, 39, Veerakumar, 29, Sathish, 24, Vignesh, 26 and Stalin, 50, hailing from Theni district.
The gang had targeted K Faizal, 29, and his brother K Moideen, 38, from Malappuram in Kerala. The duo had visited Chokkampudur on July 3 for buying clothes and had bought nighties worth of Rs 1.73lakh. They left for their hometown on Thursday night in their car carrying the cloth bundles. When they reached Marappalam in Madukkarai, the gang waylaid them in a car. The gang members introduced themselves as income tax department officials and said they wanted to search the vehicle for hawala money. When Moideen asked them to show their identity cards, the gang members attacked the businessmen and pulled them out of the car. Ravikumar drove away with the car. The other gang members snatched Rs 10,400 from Moideen and managed to flee in their car. However, Ravikumar was caught in a huge traffic jam. People, who were alerted by Moideen, caught him and roughed him up before handing him over to the Madukkarai police.
Police later arrested the rest of the gang members and seized their car and a knife. They were remanded in judicial custody and lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison.