Robbery suspects had fun on beach after making a killing

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The five suspects in the city's daylight robbery had fun in the sea at Kovalam after committing the crime on Saturday. Unknown to them, TOI was watching them.
Four hours after the robbery, the shadow policemen started cordoning off the area around Sea Rock hotel on Eve's Beach and the nearby taxi stand. A few policemen loitered near a black Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle (UP 78 DA 8240), suspected to have been used in the crime.An hour earlier, they had received a tip-off that the suspects were in Kovalam.
Even as the police looked for suspects, a group of men who were bathing in the sea came ashore and headed towards a snack stall. They later sat at the parking lot. TOI managed to click their photographs without them noticing the camera.
Earlier, taxi drivers at the Kovil stand said they had noticed five north Indians under suspicious circumstances since Friday evening. "One of them had a bandage on the small finger of his left hand. They were seen huddling together and splitting apart very frequently. The youngest of them had hired a rickshaw on Friday night to buy liquor from the city," said a driver.
Around 5.35 pm, the gang regrouped at the car park. Two of them were carrying big, black backpacks while one of them carried a smaller one. The men with backpacks hired a cab while the one with the smaller bag took an autorickshaw.
"Their destination was the same. They asked to be dropped off at the railway station," a driver, who also passed on the vehicle numbers, said. Sensing that they were giving the police the slip, TOI alerted the intelligence wing at the Central railway station.
Two other members of the gang continued roaming around the area. A few minutes later, one of them proceeded towards the bike under surveillance. He stopped four times in two minutes as if to urinate, but he seemed to be surveying the area. However, the police soon picked up the man and his accomplice.
Meanwhile, the two who had boarded the taxi, grew suspicious and tried to flee as the car reached East Fort. The police, however, chased them down. The man who took the autorickshaw reached the railway station and the waiting police picked him up.