Robber gang from T.Nadu busted

Gang members robbed valuables after diverting people’s attention

The Jayanagar police, on Monday, busted a gang from Tamil Nadu, who used to divert the attention of people and rob their valuables. The police have arrested Selvam, a 30-year-old from Tiruchi, and efforts are on to nab others, who are said to be on the run.

According to the police, the gang adopted various means to divert attention, such as puncturing the wheels of vehicles, telling victims that fuel is leaking from their vehicles, hurling a powder that causes itching, throwing ink or other coloured substance on victims’ shirt to confuse them, throwing chilli powder, and putting a few currency notes near the victims’ vehicles.

The police zeroed in on the accused after verifying the CCTV footage while investigating a case. Recently, a doctor who was getting into his car parked by the roadside at Jayanagar 4th Block, was robbed. The accused had dumped a few notes near the car and alerted him about the same. The unsuspecting doctor got down from the car and began to pick up the notes, when another accused opened the car’s back door and escaped with Rs. 4 lakh cash that the doctor had withdrawn from a bank. The entire incident was caught on CCTV camera. Based on a complaint, the police arrested one of the accused.

Recently a spate of such incidents were reported in South Bengaluru, including Jayanagar and Siddapura, a senior police officer said.

On September 8, a 32-year-old businessman was robbed of Rs. 5.6 lakh from Siddapura after the gang members punctured the wheels of his scooter. In another instance, a man was robbed of Rs. 4 lakh from an autorickshaw he was travelling in Jayanagar after he withdrew the amount from a bank. One of the gang members at the bank gave the others the victim’s description. The other gang members followed his autorickshaw. They told the autorickshaw driver that fuel was leaking, When the autorickshaw driver stopped to check, the victim got a phone call. The gang members used this opportunity and made away with the cash.

The police are now approaching banks to create awareness among those who withdraw cash in bulk. Banks have been asked to put up posters alerting their customers, a senior police officer said.