Four persons, including two excise officers, have been arrested by the Thadiyittaparambu police in Ernakulam rural limits in Kerala on charges of robbery and assault on May 12 around 12.30 a.m.

Of the two excise officers, one has been identified as Salim Yousuf, a preventive officer attached to the Kunnathunadu excise circle, and the other, Sidharth, a civil excise officer who was relieved from the Aluva excise circle office on May 6 following an order for his transfer to the Ernakulam excise squad. The other two were reportedly “anti-social elements.”

Excise department officials said the two officers have been suspended pending inquiry.

The accused allegedly robbed ₹56,000 and four mobile phones, worth around ₹20,000 each, from the rooms of migrant workers in a building near the Post Office Junction in Vazhakkulam village. The accused allegedly assaulted the migrant workers as well.

According to the first information report, the accused knocked on the door of one Johirul Islam, 25, originally from Morigaon district in Assam, and stole ₹28,000 he had kept beneath the mattress. They then allegedly robbed ₹15,000, ₹6,000, ₹4,000 and ₹3,000 from the adjoining rooms of other migrants.

The accused have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 309(4) (robbery), 331(6) (house trespass) and 3(5) (a criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all).