Gangsters battle it out in front of station

Two gangsters chased their rivals in the middle of evening traffic and attacked them with swords before the Yelachenahalli metro station on Wednesday.

The police arrested Harshith Gowda (20), a resident of Raghuvanahalli on Kanakapura Road, and Sharan R (20), residing at Vodyerahalli on Kanakapura Road.

A motorist stuck in the slowing traffic captured the incident on his mobile phone.

DCP (South) K Annamalai said Gowda has two pending cases against him, including that of murder, while Sharan faces a mobile snatching charge. The police arrested and jailed the duo just three hours after the incident. They were produced before the magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.

The men injured in the incident were Mithun, Swaroop Krishna and Srikanth, all loaders of goods vehicles.

The police said the two men arrived at the Yelachenahalli metro station on a Honda Activa at 6.30 pm. On spotting their rival Mithun, Harshith — who also carried a weapon — got down from the bike and chased him. Mithun slipped and fell on the footpath as Harshith began attacking him. Krishna and Srikanth came to Mithun’s rescue.

The assailants threatened the passersby rushing to rescue the victims or capturing the incident. One of them reported the incident to the police control room, which dispatched a Hoysala patrol vehicle to the spot.

Passersby shared the video footage of the incident with the policemen, who shifted the injured men to hospital and later rounded up the attackers at a farmhouse in Subramanyapura. Harshith, a rowdy-sheeter in Subramanyapura, was sent to jail in 2017 for murdering fellow rowdy-sheeter Puneeth. He worked as a painter after coming out on bail.

Mithun said Harshith threatened him, recalling the way his brother Puneeth was killed. The police believe Harshith wanted Mithun to withdraw the murder allegations.