Coimbatore: The city police shot in the leg of a rowdy involved in a series of robberies while attempting to escape arrest by attacking a cop near Sulur here on Thursday evening. He was eventually held along with four others, one of them a college student, in connection with various robberies.A police officer identified the arrested five as B Balamurugan, 18, Naveen, 20, Mukesh, 19, Vishal, 19, and a 17-year-old boy, all natives of Sivagangai district. He said the gang was involved in multiple robbery incidents and district superintendent of police K Karthikeyan had earlier formed special teams to arrest the gang based on a complaint lodged by a college student who was robbed of his laptop and Rs5,000 at knifepoint at his rental room at Thirumalayampalayam on March 3. “Acting on a specific intelligence, a special team reached Appanaickenpatti near Sulur on Thursday evening, where Balamurugan and the minor were hiding. During the arrest attempt, Balamurugan attacked sub-inspector Yuvaraj with a sickle and tried to flee. Inspector Prem Anand then shot Balamurugan in the leg in self-defence. The minor, who tried to escape fell and suffered a fracture in his hand,” the officer said. He said Balamurugan, the minor and sub-inspector Yuvaraj were admitted to the govt hospital at Sulur for treatment. “The remaining three were nabbed from Thirumalayampalayam based on the information provided by the arrested duo.” Pointing out that Vishal was a private college a student, the officer said he was staying in a rental room at Thirumalayampalayam. “The remaining four, all history-sheeters, were staying with him posing as college students. The gang was in the habit of targeting college students’ rooms and committing robberies.” The SP said some habitual offenders were considering Coimbatore a safe place to commit robberies and thefts. He warned that stringent action would be taken against those who assault and rob students. “We have been conducting raids at the accommodations of college students to identify rowdies staying with them.”
