Four held after bid to waylay businessman in Coimbatore fails

COIMBATORE: Four members of a larger gang including an army man were arrested for attempting to waylay a car on Salem-Kochi Highway by mistaking the occupants to have ‘hawala’ money in Coimbatore.

The accused K Sivadas (29), Ramesh Babu (27), M Vishnu (28) and M Ajay Kumar (24), all hailing from Palakkad in Kerala chased and intercepted the car of Aslam Siddique, 27 from Ernakulam.

He was returning home after purchasing computer accessories from Bangalore in Karnataka on 12 June.

After intercepting a gang of around seven persons got down from their cars and attacked Siddique’s car with weapons. However, Siddique managed to speed away to the nearby toll plaza, after which the assailants left the spot.

Police said the gang members made a robbery bid by mistaking Siddique to be carrying hawala money. With the images captured in rear and dash cameras of Siddique’s car, the police nabbed four accused persons. Of them Vishnu is serving in the army. He came on leave on April 4 and did not report to duty thereafter.

Further investigations are on to crack down on the entire network.