9-member gang involved in murders, robberies across State held in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: A nine-member gang involved in murders and robberies across Tamil Nadu has been arrested by police in Coimbatore on Tuesday.

The gang first came under the police radar in December 2025 after a group of college students was waylaid in Kuniyamuthur and robbed of cash and jewellery at knife-point. When a patrol team attempted to intercept the suspects, they threw chilli powder at the policemen and sped away in a car.

Police said the gang members later moved to Theni district, where its members broke into the house of a police sub-inspector and stole around 100 sovereigns of gold jewellery, before fleeing to Delhi.

Last month, the gang flew down to Tamil Nadu and murdered a man in Keeladi in Sivaganga district before returning to Coimbatore. Acting on the directions of Coimbatore City Police Commissioner Ramya Bharathi, a police team analysed mobile phone numbers and surveillance camera footage and traced them to Ukkadam. The police surrounded their hideout and arrested them

The accused were identified as Aakash (23) of Sivaganga, Manojkumar (26) of Thanjavur, Muthupandi (24) of Dindigul, Annamalai (25) of Sundarapuram in Coimbatore, Arunpandi (27) and Bhuvanesh (22) of Madurai, Arun (20) of Sivaganga, Ramar (23) of Madurai and Gopinath (23) of Dindigul.

Police said Aakash had 25 criminal cases against him, while Arun and Muthupandi had 31 and 18 cases respectively. The other members of the gang were also facing cases in different parts of the State. Following their arrest, police also seized ganja and methamphetamine from their possession. They were produced before a court and remanded to Coimbatore Central Prison.