Eight persons were arrested while attempting to demolish a hotel in R.S. Puram in the city late last night, police said today.

A gang of eight persons barged into the hotel, run by one Ramesh and ransacked it and made an attempt to mow it down with the help of an earth mover around 11.30 p.m., they said.

Learning about the incident, Ramesh alerted the police, who rushed to the spot and
took into custody all the eight– identified as Mani, Shanmugham, Syed Mustafa, Bathriappan, Krishnan alias Rajan, Suresh Kumar,Jayashankar and Nandagopal.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that Ramesh was running the hotel for the last few years and paying rent to the owner Najuimunissa. Since the property changed hands, the new owners asked Ramesh to vacate the premises.

The couple, Selvakumar and Shanthi, residing in the same building, reportedly hired the gang to take possession of the property forcibly, after Ramesh said that a civil case was pending in a court and he was paying rent regularly.

Based on the complaint, police arrested eight persons for rioting with deadly weapons and under the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, they said, even as a manhunt was on for the couple.