Robber attacks cop with knife at Central

CHENNAI: A 21-year-old robber attacked a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable with a machete, leaving him with injuries to the head, when policemen tried to arrest him in Chennai Central Railway Station on Thursday evening.
Yogesh Kumar Meena, 28, and two other constables were on duty amid heightened vigil for cellphone robbers at Chennai Central when one of a gang of four men grabbed a passenger’s phone, investigators said on Friday.
“The suspects were near suburban trains in the railway station, looking for mobile phone users who they could rob,” a police officer said. “They grabbed a phone from a commuter and tried to flee and the RPF constables gave chase along the platform.” When Yogesh caught one of the escaping men, S Vijay, of Triplicane, he resisted and then pulled out a machete and struck the constable with the weapon.
“Vijay brought the long knife down on the top of constable Yogesh’s head,” the officer said. “As Yogesh collapsed with blood streaming from the wound, the suspect tried to escape, but the other constables soon overpowered him.”
The commotion helped the other suspects escape, he said. Yogesh, taken to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, received sutures for the head wound. Doctors described his condition as stable.
The RPF handed over Vijay to the Periamet police, who registered a case and took over the investigation. The police started a search for the three absconding suspects based on information that Vijay provided during questioning. Investigators also seized surveillance videos from the crime scene to confirm the identity of the suspects.
The Periamet police seized four mobiles from Vijay as well as the machete used in the attack on the constable. Senior police officers awarded Yogesh Rs 4,000 for helping apprehend Vijay.