Man offered drop, robbed of valuables

A gang of four men abducted and robbed a 59-year-old man after offering him a drop while he was waiting for transport to go home at Goraguntepalya in the early hours of Monday.

The victim Gangadharaiah, a resident of Nagarabhavi and a private firm employee, had returned from a relative’s wedding in Tumakuru, the police said.

After alighting from the bus at Goraguntepalya around 12.20 am, Gangadharaiah was waiting for transport on the roadside. A Tempo Traveller stopped and the driver offered to drop him to his destination.

As there were no BMTC or private buses at that hour, Gangadhariah got into the Tempo Traveller. There were four passengers in the van who turned out to a gang of robbers, the police said.

As the vehicle began to move, the four suspects overpowered Gangadharaiah and began to beat him up before robbing him of his wallet, mobile phone and gold ring. The suspects found cash of only Rs 120 in his wallet but found two debit cards. They instructed the driver to stop at an ATM.

As soon as the vehicle stopped near the ATM, the suspects forced Gangadharaiah to share the PIN number with which they tried to withdraw money. However, they could get just Rs 300 from the two accounts.

After taking the money, they returned the wallet with two ATM cards and dumped him at an isolated place at Krishnappa Layout in RR Nagar around 2.10 am.

The suspects then warned him against informing anyone about the incident and sped away. The victim managed to reach a nearby hospital and underwent treatment before approaching the police. Based on his complaint, the police took up a case of robbery and efforts are on to trace the suspects.