The East Division police nabbed two members of a five-man gang of armed robbers, following an encounter on Monday night. The others escaped under the cover of darkness.

The two arrested gangsters and four policemen were injured in the encounter.

The police team arrested Ramesh Katpadi and Hariyu Murali, both in their mid-20s. The gang is said to be­ from Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. One of them, Ramesh alias Ekambaram, is an MSc graduate. The other two are Iya alias I, and Rajan.

The cops have seized a leather briefcase containing gold and silver ornaments and lethal weapons from the gangsters.

The encounter took place around 10:40 pm on Horamavu Agara Main Road near Sky Line building, next to Mallesh Reddy bungalow, where the gang was said to be hiding. The personnel of the Hoysala night patrol vehicle 299 spotted the gang moving suspiciously with a briefcase and stopped them for questioning.

The gang attacked the Hoysala driver Ramesh and constable Kenchappa. The two policemen immediately alerted their superiors over the wireless system.

Hennur police inspector Prabhakar and his team rushed to the spot. Sensing danger, the gang hid in nearby bushes. The cops, equipped with torches, combed the entire area.

While the search was on, the gang attacked the policemen with weapons. Inspector Prabhakar then fired from his service revolver. After firing in the air, he shot at the legs of the two dacoits - Ramesh and Murali - who collapsed. The others escaped.

Dacoity case ‘solved’

Preliminary investigations reveal that the gang had earlier attacked and robbed a Malleswaram resident. The valuables recovered from the dacoits are believed to be hers.

According to police, on Monday afternoon, the gang came to the house of Leela Nath, who resides on the ground floor of  Sree Apartments on 6th Main, 13th Cross, Malleswaram. As soon as she opened the door, they barged in, tied her two sons (Yeshwanth and Satyavratha) and forcibly took away gold, silver and foreign currency worth lakhs of rupees. Nath filed an FIR at the Malleswaram police station.

The complainant has identified the seized briefcase and the valuables. With this, the dacoity case is said to be solved.

Of the four policemen - Prabhakar, Madhukar, Ramesh and Kenchappa D Kollur - who were injured in the encounter, Ramesh and Kenchappa are said to be in a serious condition. The two injured dacoits are being treated as in-patients at Ambedkar Hospital.

A senior police officer told Deccan Herald: “We are sure that some local person is involved in the robbery and is helping the gang. Going by their body language, they don’t look like first-timers. We are on the lookout for the kingpin of the Katpadi gang.”