Miscreants waylay tempo, escape with booty

A gang of youth waylaid a  tempo that was returning to Bangalore with thirteen persons on a pilgrimage at Alagondanahalli village gate, threatened them with knife, lethal weapons and escaped with a booty of 450 gms of gold ornaments and Rs 5,000 cash, on Sunday midnight.

The victims included Raghuram, resident of K R Puram, Bangalore and 12 others. All the passengers had left Bangalore on March 1, after hiring a tempo traveller and had proceeded on a pilgrimage to Sringeri, Kalasa, Kateel, Horanadu, Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya and others to have darshan of the deities and offer prayers and were returning to Bangalore when the incident occurred.

It is alleged that a five member gang in a Maruti van waylaid the vehicle that was coming on the highway on Sunday night near Alagondanahalli. The youth who entered the tempo, attacked the driver and thrashed him. They threatened the passengers with knives and lethal weapons and forced the driver to drive towards Nuggehalli road.

They snatched the gold ornaments from eight women and also cash amount and fled the scene. As the miscreants had warned them not to lodge police complaint they returned to Bangalore and filed a case there.