JOIN USActing on a tip-off, sleuths from the Organsied Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested a gang of rowdies located near the APMC Yard on Binny Mill Road. The men had been plotting the murder of a rival gang member, according to police.
The arrested have been identified as Tirukumar (alias Kutty), 42, Jayakanth (alias Appan), 36, Babu Prasad (alias STD Babu), 40, and Peter, 37. The police also seized several weapons, SIM cards, and a mobile phone. Three gang members, including Garden Shiva, Ranjith and Praveen, managed to escape the police net.
Police investigations had revealed that the gang had planned to eliminate Srinivas (alias Dhadiya Seena), a hated opponent.
A notorious rowdy from Cottonpet and a brother of another notorious rowdy, Tirumarana (alias Raja), Tirukumar has some 25 cases pending against him — including three charges of murder, 8 of dacoity and two of kidnapping.
Tirukumar and Jayakanth are cousins and together were accussed in the attempted murder of an accomplice of Seena in 2010.
Seena, the prime witness in the case, concerned the two as their future hung on his testimony in court.
Police say that the two hatched a plot to eliminate Seena after they were released on bail. Police interrogations also revealed that the gang had obtained a supari (kill contract) to murder a prominent personality of Chamarajpet.
Three usurers held
The CCB Cheating and Misuse Wing, raided two homes in the City and arrested three usurers, after recieving complaints of fleecing debtors.
From one residence in Kamalanagar, the police arrested two people, Bhagyamma, 35, and Janakiram, 39. Police also seized some 100 incriminating documents, including 35 blank cheques, 44 blank stamp papers, 12 loan agreements and eight property documents.
Police sources explained that the two were charging a high interest rate of 10 per cent — in contravention to the government fixed rate. Police added that the pair had racked up money to the tune of Rs 20 lakh through illegal transactions.
A case has been registered at Basaveshwara Nagar Police Station. In an separate incident, police raided a house in Ittamadu and arrested another usurer, Prabhakar, 36.
Some 13 blank cheques and other documents were confiscated at the house. Police sources said that Prabhakar had also been been charging 10 per cent.
Police estimate that his total transactions amounted to nearly a crore. A case has been registered at CK Achukattu Police Station.
7 injured in car collision
Nine persons were injured in a collision between two cars at Kaggalipura in Kanakapura taluk, on Sunday evening. Two among them - Umesh, 25, and Puttamma, 55, - are seriously injured and are battling for life in a private hospital, the Talaghattapura police said.
The accident occurred when Puttamma and her relatives, all residents of Electronics City, were returning to Bangalore after visiting a temple in Sathnur.
Umesh, who was driving the car, lost control while negotiating a curve and collided with another car coming from the opposite direction in which five persons were travelling. All of them, also residents of Electronics City, sustained minor injuries. They were treated as outpatients, the police said.