Women stripped and robbed in Kochi; Malayalees suspected to be among five-member gang

KOCHI: The police have received hints about the suspects in the case where migrant women were threatened, stripped, and robbed in Palarivattom. It is heard that one of the members of the robbery gang is an accused in a previous theft case. Police also have information that, apart from two, the others in the gang are Malayalees. One of them is acquainted with people from other states.

The incident happened in the early hours of Thursday near Palarivattom Samskara Junction. The victims are Fisdul Haq (27) of Nagaon in Assam, Raja Babu (26), Arman Ali (23), and Intasar (25) of Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal, and three women--Tamanna (23) from Malda, West Bengal, Soma Karmakar (24) from Nadia, West Bengal, and Nurul Nehar (30) from Morigaon in Assam. They were staying in a rented house belonging to Chandramathi on Kaithoth Lane.

Five people were part of the gang. To prevent their voices from being heard outside and to keep the incident from coming to light, the suspects locked the doors from inside and seized the victims’ mobile phones. The gang then stole Rs 1.2 lakh in cash from their purses, along with ATM cards and identity cards. After threatening to kill Arman Ali, they also forced him to transfer Rs 12,000 in two UPI transactions to accounts belonging to members of the theft gang.

The gang fled after taking a gold chain of one sovereign belonging to Nurul Nehar and four grams of gold earrings belonging to Tamanna. Tamanna was slapped in the face when she tried to resist the theft. The gang arrived and left in online taxi cars.

Police said the seven-member group started living in the rented house two months ago. Among them were employees of Ponnarimangalam toll plaza and hotel employees. The police are also investigating the relationships between the women and the men staying in the house. Police suspect that the attackers and the residents were previously acquainted and that a dispute related to financial transactions may have been behind the theft.