Four robbers had fake identities

CHENNAI: A day after the city woke up to a bloody firing incident in which five men were gunned down by police at Velachery, one critical question remains foremost in everyone’s mind: Who were the five men whom the police claimed looted two banks at Perungudi and Keelkattalai within a span of one month, and had now been silenced forever? The only clue appeared to lie in four ID cards and a driving licence recovered from the crime scene. Releasing details about 11 hours after the encounter, police identified the victims as K Chandrika Ray of Maujipur, Fatuha District, Patna; P Harish Kumar of Purushottampur Town and Village, Raghopur District, Vaishali; J Vinay Prasad of Bahapur, Nalanda District; M Vinod Kumar, of Raipura, Patna — all in Bihar, and V Abhay Kumar of Howrah, WB.However, it has now come to light that Chandrika Ray is alive and works as a truck driver. He said he had never visited Chennai and did not have any relatives living here. Vijay Singh, father of Abhay Kumar, claimed that he had been staying in the same address for the last 40 years and never knew anybody named Abhay Kumar living in Chennai.In the case of M Vinod Kumar, the man in the video released by police, inmates of the house in Bihar claimed there was nobody by the name living there. J Vinay Prasad’s family told media that he left home 10 days ago and his whereabouts were unknown.With the identity of at least four of the victims turning out to be fake, the question which the police now have to answer is: Who were the alleged bank robbers? While police claimed that all the suspects were north Indians, it should be noted that one of them was heard talking in Telugu twice.Additional Commissioner P Thamarai Kannan told Express that the five were criminals and could have created fake identity cards. “We will send their photos to Bihar police for verification,” he said. “We will also send their fingerprints after the autopsy is completed.”