Quotation gang arrested for murder attempt

Tripunithura: Police arrested four members of a quotation gang in connection with an attempt to murder case on Thursday. One of them has been identified as 'Padakaali' Dileep alias Dileep Kumar or 'Kullan' Dileep (33), a close associate of the recently-murdered local gangster Shameer (aka Mortuary Shameer). The three others are his associates.
Dileep along with Mortuary Shameer's brother-in-law Shoukath T, Biju T L and Prajith NC were arrested for the alleged attack on Rajiv P Gopal, a resident of Eroor, on April 17.
Meanwhile, the police are on the lookout for one Ajayan, the key accused in the case, who hired the gang for a sum of Rs 1.30 lakh.
Police said Ajayan had approached Shoukath, who has several criminal cases against him, with the demand to murder Rajiv following an altercation over a property dispute. Accordingly, the gang hatched a plan to kill the complainant while he was returning home from his workplace.
"Though attacked with metal rods and stabbed a couple of times, he survived the attempt following the intervention of local residents," said CI Baiju Poulose of the Tripunithura police.
Following the attack, the gang members went into hiding. On a tip-off, the police were tracking the gang for a fortnight. While three persons were traced to a hideout near Trippunithura, Dileep was taken into custody from Thiruvananthapuram. "Realising that the police was after the gang, Ajayan offered Rs 1 lakh more to them demanding not to reveal his name," the officer added. The accused have been booked under IPC 307 and remanded to custody.
Admission scam: BJP leader seeks time
Kochi: Local BJP leader C G Rajagopal aka Muthu, who was summoned by Ernakulam south police for an interrogation in connection with the interstate admission scam, has sought more time to appear before the investigation team.
Meanwhile, police said that they will quiz another person named Manoj Melettu who had connections with key-accused Jayesh J Kumar and Rajagopal. The investigation team has served a notice to Manoj to appear for an interrogation on Sunday.
South station sub-inspector V Gopakumar said that Rajagopal has sought additional time of two days to appear before the investigation team. Rajagopal, who represented BJP in Ernakulam constituency during the state assembly elections in 2011, was asked to appear on Thursday. Rajagopal's name came up in the scam after police found his photographs in the mobile phone of Jayesh.
Later, police found that Rajagopal had visited the institute, Adusumilli Vijaya Group of Colleges at Bommalaramaram near Secunderabad, run by Jayesh.