Beware of suspicious people hanging around banks observing you finish the transaction. As you step out, they may follow you and divert your attention— to rob you in fact.

If you are attentive enough to be alert and take guard, all of a sudden another gang may approach and rob all your valuables at knifepoint, as the case in point here.

A 40-year-old woman fell victim to one such gang, which robbed her in broad daylight on the busy Rhenius Street in Ashok Nagar, central Bengaluru, on February 18.

Elsy Jaison, a homemaker and a resident of Langford Garden, had gone to Canara Bank near Divyashree Chambers to take out her jewellery and investment certificates from the bank locker. She had plans to change her old jewellery to new designs.

She had taken her gold necklace, chain and anklets, along with her Kisan Vikas Patra worth around Rs 20 lakh, from her bank locker.

It was around 11.30 am. Jaison was walking from the bank towards her house nearby. She was followed by two women. The women told her that some of her money had fallen down. She looked back— something’s amiss, she thought.

“My wife did not respond to the women. She held onto the bag tightly and continued to walk. Soon, two men wearing helmets on a scooter accosted my wife. The pillion rider brandished a knife and threatened my wife that he will stab her and asked her to give away the bag. While she resisted, the man snatched the bag and pushed my wife who fell down on the footpath. All this happened in broad daylight,” said Jaison Abraham, the victim’s husband.

“My wife then saw the two men speed away on the bike, while the two women crossed the road and got into a Maruti van waiting for them. They too fled,” Abraham added.

Soon after, the couple approached Ashok Nagar police and filed a complaint. “It took two days for my wife to come out of the shock,” Jaison recalled.

Police have registered a case of robbery and are on the lookout for the gang.