The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Student robbed at gunpoint at Thandalam

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Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Others

Student robbed at gunpoint at Thandalam

By Our Staff Reporter

Indra Kumar, an engineering college student who was assaulted by a gun-toting gang on Thursday.

TAMBARAM, DEC. 23. A gun-wielding duo struck terror at Thandalam near Ayyappanthangal, a western suburb, assaulted an engineering college student and robbed his motorcycle, cellphone and jewels on Wednesday.

A day after the incident, J. Indra Kumar (21), of Narayanee Amman Koil Street, Nerkundram, is still in a state of shock. A final-year student of B.E. Information Technology of Sakthi Mariamman College in Thandalam near Sriperumbudur, Indra Kumar had been to Nugumbal, near Ayyappanthangal, where his family's house was under construction. He was accompanied by two friends on a motorcycle.

Hit on the head

As he was about to leave for his house at Nerkundram, he was intercepted by the two men on a TVS Victor on the Oil Mill Road at the junction of Thandalam and Nugumbal villages around 2.30 p.m. The men asked Indra Kumar to get down from his motorcycle. When he hesitated, they pulled out a pistol, hit him on the helmet and pushed him on the ground. The duo then snatched his gold chain and bracelet, both weighing about 2.5 sovereigns, cellphone and helmet. "When I got up and tried to turn off my motorcycle, one of them hit me hard on the head with a pistol," Indra Kumar said, pointing to his bandaged head. "I started bleeding profusely. I begged them to leave me," a dazed Indra Kumar told The Hindu at his Nerkundram house.

His friends retreated as one of the men pointed the pistol at them and warned them not to get help. The men were tall and well-built and looked menacing, he said.

Open threat

About a dozen residents and passers-by, who were witness to the incident, tried to move closer. An eyewitness said the gun-wielding man turned to the crowd and threatened to shoot if anyone came close. "We did not know what to do. He could have opened fire and injured us," an eyewitness said, preferring not to be named. "Everything was over in minutes. They abandoned their TVS Victor and rode on the student's Bajaj Pulsar," the eyewitness said.

The residents said that one of them wore the student's helmet, probably to cover his face, before fleeing. An elderly woman said they were all terrorised at the sight of the men with the gun. "I never imagined it could happen in real life," she said.

Indra Kumar was taken to the SRMC Hospital at Porur by his friends. The injury required stitches. Elderly women at Nugumbal complained that chain snatching and other petty crimes were common in the locality. Women who travelled alone were harassed by anti-social elements. Special teams set up

Meanwhile, the Chengai East district police have formed seven special teams comprising about 50 policemen to investigate the crime.

The TVS Victor motorcycle used by the criminals and subsequently abandoned was stolen by them near Puzhal area.

This morning, the police showed the eyewitnesses more than a dozen colour photographs of suspects, but none of the snaps matched with their description. The police also said the suspects involved in the crime were not the ones who committed a similar offence at Maduravoyal about two weeks ago.

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