Thaindian News

Chennai, Feb 23 (IANS) Five young men who allegedly robbed a bank were shot dead in a residential locality here in a sensational midnight gunbattle which also left two policemen wounded, police said Thursday.

Police swooped on an apartment in Vellacherry south Chennai soon after being tipped off that one of the bank robbers was holed up there, Police Commissioner J.K. Tripathy told reporters here.

A firefight broke out, leading to the death of Vinod Kumar, Vinay Prasad, Harish Kumar and Chandrikary, all from Bihar, and Abhay Kumar from West Bengal.

The men, in the age group of 30-35 years, were living in Chennai claiming to be students, police said.

The injured policemen — identified only as Ravi and Christy Jayaseel — have been admitted to the Royapettah Hospital.

Tripathy said police seized five pistols, two revolvers, ID and SIM cards as well as Rs.14 lakh in cash from the apartment.

An earlier police version put the amount at Rs.10 lakh.

“We do not have any early history of the five,” he said. “We will protect the identity of the informants.”

After two bank robberies at gunpoint here since January, police had formed 45 teams to track down the criminals.

A Bank of Baroda branch was robbed of Rs.19 lakh at gunpoint Jan 23. And this week, in a similar operation, gunmen walked away with Rs.14 lakh from an Indian Overseas Bank in the city.

Tripathy said police meticulously went through 400 hours of CCTV footage gathered from various bank branches.

After one of the suspects was identified, his identify was verified from a bank employee.

The footage was then flashed on television, and police promised to reward anyone who could lead them to the robbers.

This led to the tip that sparked off the midnight crackdown, Tripathy said.

After the gunbattle, residents of the area said the five men were not in the apartment from December to January.