NAMAKKAL/THRISSUR: Three states, seven robbers, a hat-trick of ATM heists , a getaway truck with Rs 68 lakh and a car in the back, a high-speed police chase , collisions and gunshots - all combined to deliver a climax worthy of a fast-and-furious Friday blockbuster.
One of the robbers was shot dead and six arrested. The events leading to this dramatic endgame in Tamil Nadu 's Namakkal on Friday morning had a deceptively quiet beginning in Kerala, just after midnight Thursday.
Around 2.10am, the gang from Haryana targeted the first of three ATMs near temple town Thrissur. They used masking spray to blind CCTV cameras, pasted an 'ATM Under Repair' sticker outside to make sure nobody entered, and used gas cutters to get to the cash. They would hit two more ATMs the same way in two hours.
At daybreak, the action would shift to Namakkal, around 255km from Thrissur. Around 6am, district SP S Rajesh Kannan received an alert from Kerala Police about a white Creta with seven men entering TN after robbing three ATMs.
By then, in a move from the 2003 thriller ‘The Italian Job’, the Creta and booty had disappeared into a container truck that had been waiting for them near Mannuthy.
The truck crossed Walayar checkpoint on Kerala-TN border around 5.30am and passed through Coimbatore and Erode before entering Namakkal. When police teams tried to stop it near Kumarapalayam and Pallipalayam at 9.45am, it raced towards Sankari town and hit the Salem-Erode highway. Near Veppadai, the truck collided with two motorcycles and a car.
“The truck dragged the car for almost 300ft. One person was injured,” said P Vadivel, a witness. Over two dozen police cars chased the truck for several miles before it ran into a series of iron barricades and vehicles lined up across the highway to block it. Police found five men in the truck’s cabin. When they were being rounded up, a noise from the truck’s hold led them to the other two robbers, the numberless Creta, and an ATM machine. It was 10.45am
One of the robbers attacked inspectors A Dhavamani and Ranjith Kumar with a crowbar, injuring both, say police. In the melee, the gang tried to flee with a bag containing the cash, prompting cops to fire at them.
H Zumadin (40) of Haryana’s Palwal was killed while K Azar Ali (30), from the same district, was shot in the leg. The arrested men were identified as Mohammad Ikram (42) of Nuh, and Mubarak (18), Sabbir Khan (26), Shoukeen (21) and Irfan (32) from Palwal.
Salem DIG E S Uma said the gang might be linked to at least 15 such ATM burglaries across south India over the past six months. She didn’t say if the amount of cash seized from the gang matched the Rs 68 lakh that Kerala Police said was taken from an ATM at Mapranam, near Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur, another at Shornur Road in the heart of the city, and the third at Kolazhy, 5km away.
Police are investigating if the gang was involved in a Rs 9 lakh ATM heist in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri on September 1.
The DIG said the gang had singled out SBI ATMs in Thrissur. The one in Krishnagiri belonged to the same bank. The arrested robbers will be produced in court on Saturday. Azar is being treated at Coimbatore Govt Medical College and Hospital.
One of the robbers was shot dead and six arrested. The events leading to this dramatic endgame in Tamil Nadu 's Namakkal on Friday morning had a deceptively quiet beginning in Kerala, just after midnight Thursday.
Around 2.10am, the gang from Haryana targeted the first of three ATMs near temple town Thrissur. They used masking spray to blind CCTV cameras, pasted an 'ATM Under Repair' sticker outside to make sure nobody entered, and used gas cutters to get to the cash. They would hit two more ATMs the same way in two hours.
At daybreak, the action would shift to Namakkal, around 255km from Thrissur. Around 6am, district SP S Rajesh Kannan received an alert from Kerala Police about a white Creta with seven men entering TN after robbing three ATMs.
By then, in a move from the 2003 thriller ‘The Italian Job’, the Creta and booty had disappeared into a container truck that had been waiting for them near Mannuthy.
The truck crossed Walayar checkpoint on Kerala-TN border around 5.30am and passed through Coimbatore and Erode before entering Namakkal. When police teams tried to stop it near Kumarapalayam and Pallipalayam at 9.45am, it raced towards Sankari town and hit the Salem-Erode highway. Near Veppadai, the truck collided with two motorcycles and a car.
“The truck dragged the car for almost 300ft. One person was injured,” said P Vadivel, a witness. Over two dozen police cars chased the truck for several miles before it ran into a series of iron barricades and vehicles lined up across the highway to block it. Police found five men in the truck’s cabin. When they were being rounded up, a noise from the truck’s hold led them to the other two robbers, the numberless Creta, and an ATM machine. It was 10.45am
One of the robbers attacked inspectors A Dhavamani and Ranjith Kumar with a crowbar, injuring both, say police. In the melee, the gang tried to flee with a bag containing the cash, prompting cops to fire at them.
H Zumadin (40) of Haryana’s Palwal was killed while K Azar Ali (30), from the same district, was shot in the leg. The arrested men were identified as Mohammad Ikram (42) of Nuh, and Mubarak (18), Sabbir Khan (26), Shoukeen (21) and Irfan (32) from Palwal.
Salem DIG E S Uma said the gang might be linked to at least 15 such ATM burglaries across south India over the past six months. She didn’t say if the amount of cash seized from the gang matched the Rs 68 lakh that Kerala Police said was taken from an ATM at Mapranam, near Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur, another at Shornur Road in the heart of the city, and the third at Kolazhy, 5km away.
Police are investigating if the gang was involved in a Rs 9 lakh ATM heist in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri on September 1.
The DIG said the gang had singled out SBI ATMs in Thrissur. The one in Krishnagiri belonged to the same bank. The arrested robbers will be produced in court on Saturday. Azar is being treated at Coimbatore Govt Medical College and Hospital.
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