In a crime scene straight out of a movie, a gang of 15 men waylaid and attacked three persons, said to be from a rival gang, with machetes at the Sumanahalli Junction on Magadi Road around 3.30 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the statement given to the police by a victim, the assailants were travelling on two-wheelers and one autorickshaw. Both the victims and assailants have various cases against them in local police stations ranging from assault to extortion.
The planned attack resulted in the death of Kumar alias ‘302' Kumara, an autorickshaw driver and moneylender. His associates Manju and ‘Seeme Yenne' Viji were grievously injured in the attack and have been hospitalised.
The victims are said to be childhood friends and members of a gang headed by Rama Lakshmana and ‘Poison' Rama.
Financial disputes
Police sources claimed that one Jagadeesh alias ‘Tommy' with help from his gang member Thimmenhalli Kariya were behind the attack. In fact, Kumar and the principal suspect in the case were thick of friends at one time. But financial disputes had been brewing between them for some time, the police said.
Things took a turn for the worse when Jagadeesh joined a rival gang headed by Marenhalli Jagga.
According to the police, Kumar, Manju and Viji, who were heading towards home in a car on Sunday, were waylaid as they were driving past Tirumala Kalyan Mantapa near Sumanahalli Junction. Fearing their lives, the trio abandoned the car and tried to escape.
While one group chased Manju and Viji and attacked them with weapons, another abducted Kumar, the main target, and took him near BEML Layout Park in Basaveshwaranagar. Here they tortured him for a few minutes. When he fell unconscious, they stabbed him to death and fled. All this happened in full public view, the police said.
However, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) S.N. Siddaramappa dismissed the theories that his colleagues shared with the media on the condition of anonymity. He said the attack was not the fallout of a gang rivalry. Kumar and his friends had been tormenting a girl known to the suspect for the last few days, Mr. Siddaramappa said. The attack was a result of this dispute, he added.
