Post-mortem on bank robbery accused bodies performed

CHENNAI: Two days after the bloody encounter in which fi ve suspected bank robbers were killed, a team of forensic experts today performed the post-mortem on the bodies of the deceased. In a pre-dawn encounter on February 23, fi ve people -- four from Bihar and one from West Bengal -- were shot dead by police in ‘self defence’. All the fi ve suspects -- Vinod Kumar, Vinay Prasad, Harish Kumar and Chandri Khare from Bihar and Abhay Kumar from West Bengal-- were said to be involved in the twin bank heists at Perungudi Branch of BOB on January 23 and at the Keelkattalai branch of IOB on February 20 in which they made away with Rs 20 Lakh and Rs 14 Lakh respectively at gun point. Police sources said the process of conducting autopsy began at around 0900 hrs and ended around noon. A 12-member-team of doctors assisted by Forensic experts performed the autopsy at the Government General Hospital. The entire post mortem process was video graphed, the sources said, adding, the autopsy was performed in the presence of Egmore 14th Metropolitan Magistrate Ms Geeta Rani, who was holding a judicial probe into the encounter. The Magistrate had examined all the bodies at the hospital mortuary yesterday and took details of identity marks and the nature of bullet wounds on their body from the doctors. Later, about 17 offi cials from both BOB and the IOB had identifi ed the bodies and saw they were the ones who were involved in the bank heist. Two automobile dealers at Triplicane area in the city too identifi ed the bodies and said they purchased two-wheelers from them and came back to sell them a few days after purchasing them. Meanwhile, confusion reigned supreme over the identity of the four of the suspects as the voter ID cards seized from the encounter spot were found to be fake. While the parents of Vinod Kumar, whose CCTV grab was released by the police leading to the tip off about his presence in Velachery resulting in the subsequent encounter, identifi ed him and said his original name was Sujay Kumar Rai, the identity cards of the other four were said to be fake.The parents and other family members of Vinod Kumar, said to be the kingpin in the bank heist, arrived here last night and identifi ed the body at the government hospital this morning. They also met the police offi cials probing the bank heist and confi rmed that Vinod Kumar was their son and that he had told them back home that he was involved in real estate business in the city. His body was later handed over to them after autopsy. However, the identity in respect of other four suspects was denied by their family members. Special teams had been sent to their native places to ascertain their real identity. As the voter identity cards of the suspects were fake, police were now pinning their hopes on the call details from the SIM cards recovered from the spot, to carry forward the investigation. The assistance of the Cyber Crime Cell would be sought in this regard, the sources added.