Armed gang hacks auto driver to death

An armed gang chased down an auto-rickshaw driver inside a commercial complex in Banashankari before brutally murdering him on Sunday night.

Police suspect that Harish Kumar, 32, from AK Colony, was murdered over an old rivalry.

Police said Kumar had turned to crime two years ago and would extort money from local residents. On Sunday, he went to a liquor store near Yediyur lake for a drink. A group of young men also arrived at the tavern. After sometime, without any provocation, he picked a fight with them, threatening to hire goons to kill them. The youths, who were equally drunk, didn’t take kindy to Kumar’s drunken threats and attacked him.

Kumar, who was injured in the attack, quickly gained his senses and sprinted to safety. But the youths, who were armed with lethal weapons, gave him a chase. Just then, they saw a man rushing to Kumar’s rescue, and hid behind a tree on the roadside. They thought the man was a policeman on night patrol. But he turned out to be a friend of Kumar’s who wanted to take him to hospital.

The attackers quickly realised their folly and went after Kumar. That friend, on seeing the attackers, fled the spot. Kumar then got up and ran into a commercial complex nearby. But the youths chased him down and hacked him to death.

Police said that they had certain clues about the attackers and would apprehend them soon.