Bengaluru: Six young men from Tamil Nadu have been arrested by Konanakunte police on charges of dacoity on April 17 at a house where a few students from Kerala lived.The arrested men — Abhinesh, Kalaivendan, Prem Kumar, Kumaran, Naveen Kumar, and Vimal Raj — had barged into the house claiming the students possessed ganja. According to the complaint filed by Irfan Muhammed, a native of Kerala and hotel management student at a private college in Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road, he along with his collegemates, also from Kerala and identified as Adarsh Merara, Darvin Joly and four others, stayed in a house in Pavamananagar in Kembattahalli. The four others had gone home.Around 10.20pm, a group of six armed men barged into their house, threatened them and demanded that they part with their valuables. When they refused, the gang assaulted them with knives. Meanwhile, three of their friends, Saavad TV, Fazil and Feben, came to meet them around 11.05pm. The gang assaulted them too and left with four phones, two laptops, and a two-wheeler. The gang also forced the victims to transfer Rs 10,000 through a digital payment app. Police investigation revealed that one of the accused, Abhinesh, was a student at the same college. He had a financial dispute with the Kerala students over the house they were staying in. The house was earlier rented by Abhinesh. Police said Abhinesh invited his friends from Tamil Nadu, all of whom were engineering graduates working in private firms. On April 17 evening, they followed Irfan from college to the house and later returned at night to commit the crime. Through the digital payment transaction, police traced the accused to Tamil Nadu on April 21 and brought them to Bengaluru. Looted valuables worth around Rs 3 lakh were recovered.The accused have been remanded in judicial custody. Naveen was earlier involved in an assault case in Tamil Nadu, while the others are first-time offenders, a police officer added.
