BANGALORE: Even as the brutal assault on 44-year-old Jyothi Uday in an ATM in the City is still fresh in public memory, a 26-year-old lady administrator at IBM was attacked by two armed miscreants, who slashed her throat while snatching her mobile phone near the footbridge across the Railway track in Benson Town on Thursday evening.
The victim, Nimi Farooq, who was returning home from work, was barely five minutes away from her residence when the incident occurred. While descending the footbridge, two men suddenly pounced upon her, slashed her throat twice while snatching the mobile phone she was holding.
Though Nimi Farooq fought back and tried to resist the robbery, the duo escaped with the mobile phone, worth around Rs 1,000, after slashing her hand. Nimi, with her bagpack containing her laptop and other valuables, managed to run home from where she was rushed to a nearby private hospital by her husband Yaser Farooq, who works as physiotherapist in a charitable health institute in Seshadripuram.
Nimi underwent a two-hour-long surgery at Santosh Hospital, where she is recuperating. She has, however, been declared out of danger.
Mr Yaser said Nimi took a BMTC bus home from her office in Manyata Tech Park in Nagawara and alighted near Coles Park around 6.30 pm before passing through Promenade Road and taking the footbridge to reach her home in Benson Town. The footbridge descends onto Bore Bank Road, which is not only dimly lit, but also deserted in the evening.
“It is shocking. It was not just robbery. They even tried to kill her by slashing her throat not once, but twice”, said Mr Yaser, who also had to run from pillar to post to lodge a police complaint.
Narrating his ordeal, Mr Yaser said he first approached Bharathi Nagar police station, who sent him to J C Nagar police station citing jurisdiction of the place of occurrence.
“The JC Nagar police after hearing the details of the crime, asked me to go to Cantonment railway police since the area falls in their jurisdiction”. Mr. Yaser finally reached Cantonment railway police station and explained the incident in detail to the officials and managed to convince them to accompany him to the spot. The police who visited the spot and later to the hospital agreed to file a robbery case, he said.
The victim Nimi is the grand-daughter of Abdulla Haji Ahmed Sait, who is a Vice president of Muslim League in Kerala. Also, her paternal grand mother, Zulaika Hussain is a well Urdu novelist, Mr Yaser said.
