Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (MS)

Udupi, Jul 7: Udupi police have nabbed a gang, which used to rob money and valuables from public, including immigrant labourers, at night and arrested seven persons in this connection, Including the accused of the infamous 'Mangaluru Homestay Attack'.

The accused in the homestay attack case Shreyas Alias Sacchu, a resident of Kallianpur, Abhijith, Vignesh, Sampath, Manish Kumar, Shashank and Nikhil Shetty are the arrested persons. Abhishek and Harshith are absconding.

All the arrested are in the age group of 19 to 21 years and among these Nikhil Shetty is a student as per the information given by the police.

This gang was targeting locals and immigrant labourers, who used to walk alone in Udupi and Manipal areas, attack them and loot their cash, mobile phones and other valuables.

Police were unable to catch the culprits as none of the victims reported these incidents to the police and also for the fact that all the attacks happened in night time, made it difficult for the police to identify the culprits as the image on CCTV was not very clear. A similar incident had taken place in the city bus stand of Udupi and there also police could not identify the culprits.

The accused had attacked a local person in Santhekatte near Udupi on June 16, snatched his mobile and made good their escape. As per the complaint registered by the victim of this incident, police could identify one person and brought him to the police station and subjected him to inquiry. As per the information given by the arrested person, police were able to nab three accused each from Bengaluru and Mangaluru.

The gang used to attack mostly on weekends. They used to hit the head of victims with bottle and loot the valuables.

Search is one to apprehend the two absconding culprits. The arrested are in Mangaluru prison under judicial custody.

Police sources have said that there are several cases registered against the same gang in Mangaluru, Udupi and Manipal police stations.