The city police are confident of nabbing the accused involved in the attack on a woman inside the Corporation Bank ATM kiosk in Bangalore following fresh leads indicating his involvement in another case in Andhra Pradesh.
A senior police officer, supervising the investigations, said the assailant is suspected to have attacked a woman and murdered her in Anantapur district nine days before attacking Jyothi Uday in Bangalore on November 19. Two days after allegedly murdering the woman, he had withdrawn money from an ATM in Kadiri in Anantapur district with the debit card of his victim.
The police official said the CCTV footage obtained from the ATM in Anantapur indicated a striking similarity of accused person involved in the Kadiri and Bangalore cases. “His attire and body language appear to be the same. The attacker appears to be wearing the same shirt while withdrawing cash from the ATM in Kadiri and while attacking Ms. Jyothi in the ATM kiosk in Bangalore. Also, he is carrying the same bag in both CCTV images,” the official said.
The team of policemen from Bangalore camping in Anantapur have intensified their investigations in the wake of this “breakthrough” and are working closely with the local police in Andhra Pradesh to establish the identity of the accused. “It is yet to be ascertained whether he is from Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka, but the pattern shows that he is shuttling between Bangalore and Anantapur,” a police official said.
The police had picked up a second hand mobile dealer from Hindupur in Anantapur district, who had bought Ms. Jyothi’s robbed mobile phone. The police, who traced the mobile phone using its IMEI number, tracked the dealer Abuzar and brought him to the city for further questioning. He was released after securing an assurance to co-operate in the investigation.
