Thaindian News

Chennai, Feb 23 (IANS) In a midnight gunbattle at a residential locality here, Tamil Nadu police shot dead five people suspected to be involved in robberies at two suburban bank branches, an official said Thursday.

According to police, the killing of the five is the biggest shootout in the state.

“Five people are dead and two policemen were injured,” Chennai Police Commissioner J.K. Tripathy told reporters here.

The dead have been identified as Vinodkumar, Vinaykumar, Harishkumar, Abheykumar and Chandrikhare. While Chandrikhare was from Bihar, the others were from West Bengal. They were in the age group of 30-35.

The five people had been staying in a rented apartment, saying they were students in the city. Police recovered around Rs.10 lakh from the apartment.

After two shocking bank robberies at gun-point here, police had formed 45 teams and started investigating the case.

The two injured policemen — Ravi and Christy Jayaseel — have been admitted to Royapettah Hospital.

The death of the alleged bank robbers came exactly one month after they were suspected to have robbed a Bank of Baroda branch in a suburban locality.