Unidentified persons have robbed a rice-mill owner of Rs. 2.65 lakh after inflicting grievous cut injuries at Alangulam around Monday midnight.
Police said R. Krishnan (47) alias Kittu, a rice-mill owner from Alangulam arrived at his native place around Monday midnight in a bus after collecting money from his customers.
When he kept the bag containing Rs. 2.65 lakh in the box of his two-wheeler parked near Alangulam bus-stand and was going to his house, two unidentified persons, who were following him in a bike, intercepted Mr. Krishnan even as he was crossing the BSNL Office.
The duo attacked him with logs and hacked him with sickles, in which he sustained grievous head injuries. When the victim fell in a pool of blood, the criminals took the cash and escaped. As Mr. Krishnan informed his son Subramanian about the attack, he rushed to the spot and took his father to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.
“As the criminals had covered their faces with cloth, I could not identify them,” Mr. Krishnan told the police during interrogation.
Petition
Demanding immediate arrest of the criminals who robbed the rice mill owner and recovery of the booty, members of Alangulam Area Mill Owners’ Association submitted petition in the District Police Office on Tuesday evening. They said their members used to return home in the odd hours after collecting the outstanding amount from their customers and hence the police should intensify night patrolling in Alangulam.
“This is not the first incident at Alangulam as textile shop owners and rice-mill owners have been targeted by the robbers in the recent past. Only night patrolling and stringent action against robbers will save the traders and the innocent public from the criminals,” T.P.V. Vaigunda Raja, president of the association, said.