You can say it was no ordinary day for Muthoot Finance branch manager Sudhakar, who was shot by armed robbers when he confronted them Tuesday morning.
The quick-thinking 59-year-old pressed the alarm button even as he tried to snatch the pistol — which he thought was a toy — pointed at him by one of the two men in his first-floor office at Mariyappanapalya, behind Bangalore University’s Jnanabharathi campus.
It was during the struggle for the pistol that the other robber shot him. Fortunately, the bullet grazed his abdomen and his injuries are not life-threatening. Taken aback by Mr. Sudhakar’s fight, the duo fled downstairs and sped off in a motorbike driven by a third man. They left a country-made pistol behind.
No customers present
Only Mr. Sudhakar and his colleague, Tejaswini, were present at the office when the robbers barged in.
“When the men demanded he hand over the cash, he said he didn’t have keys to the locker,” his wife Kavitha, to whom the injured bank manager had narrated the sequence of events, told The Hindu .
A shaken Ms. Kavitha, who is by her husband’s side at the hospital, said he was rushed here by a friend who was passing by. She said he was conscious and conversing.
Supreet Hegde, executive director of Utility Lifeline Hospital, told The Hindu Mr. Sudhakar was brought in around 11.45 a.m. and admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).
The injuries
“He has sustained bullet injuries near the abdomen and his left kidney is injured. [There are] intestinal injuries but no bullet was found in his body,” he said.
Mr. Sudhakar underwent surgery of the abdomen (laparotomy) at 4 p.m. and doctors pronounced his condition stable.
He will remain in hospital for five days.
Dr. Hegde said Mr. Sudhakar told them the robbers spoke Kannada; one of them was in his 20s and the other appeared a little older.
Fake gold chain
Ramanagaram Superintendent of Police Anupam Agarwal said though one of them snatched Mr. Sudhakar’s colleague Ms. Tejaswini’s chain, it was a rolled gold chain. She managed to avoid injuries, called an ambulance and filed the police complaint, police officials said.
