The Thrissur Rural police have arrested five men accused in a attempted murder case that shook Kattur earlier this month, busting a hideout inside a remote farm in Gundlupet, Karnataka.

The arrested suspects Tintu alias Prajil, 38, Sikesh, 27, Ashwanth, 26, Arun Kumar, 30, and Dinesh, 22, hail from Kattur and nearby regions. Acting on intelligence inputs, a special team led by Thrissur Rural SP B. Krishnakumar, Irinjalakuda Dy.SP K.G. Suresh, and Kattur Inspector E.R. Baiju tracked the accused to a secluded farmhouse in Shivapura, near Gundlupet, where the accused had been hiding for the past five days.

The operation, conducted amid dense vegetation and inclement weather, involved navigating through thorny bushes and skirting electric fences meant to ward off wild animals, including leopards. To avoid detection and to block any escape routes, the police team avoided the direct entry road and instead approached the farmhouse through the rear entrance of an adjoining property, a move that caught the suspects completely off guard.

The arrests are linked to an assault that occurred on the night of July 13 at Kattur. The accused allegedly attacked two local youths, Sanup, 26, from Ponjanam and Yasin, 25, from Valakkazha, with the intent to kill. The victims, who were dining at a roadside food stall, suffered serious injuries in the sudden, coordinated assault.

Sikesh is already a key accused in a previous attempt-to-murder case registered at the Kattur police station, while the others also have multiple criminal cases pending against them.

“We approached from the rear farm area to avoid alerting the accused. Had we taken the main route, they could have easily fled into the wilderness,” said a police official involved in the operation.

The suspects reportedly confessed that they had chosen the spot assuming it would never be on the police radar. However, their plan was foiled by the special investigation team. All five men are now in custody and will be produced in court.