Gang drives off with techie's car, uses it in drug-peddling

A Maruti Swift car, which a six-member gang had driven off after assaulting its owner near the IAF bus stop in Jalahalli on April 11, was intercepted on the Mangalore-Kasaragod national highway last week while it was transporting ganja to Kerala.

The Kasaragod Town police arrested one of the two men in the car, Jaison, 26, in the raid on April 30, while his accomplice Johnson escaped.

They also seized 68 kg of ganja.

The suspects are said to be members of the gang which had attacked Sajith, a software engineer in the City and driven off with his car, a police source said.

The duo are suspected to be members of a drugs gang from Kerala which had come to Bangalore to receive a consignment of ganja.

The contraband had reportedly arrived from Odisha by train.

The gang had co-ordinated with peddlers in Odisha who had placed the contraband in the train. The gang later drove off with Sajith’s car.

After the arrest, the Kasaragod Town police learnt from the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) in Bangalore that the car belonged to Sajith who later told them about the robbery.

Sajith later identified the gang members in their photographs.

The Gangammanagudi police, who have jurisdiction over Jalahalli, are waiting for the Kasaragod Town police to hand over Jaison to them so he could be interrogated about the robbery.

Meanwhile, a police officer said the arrest had busted a huge drugs racket. Hunt is on for other members of the gang.

Hot oil falls on man

A 22-year-old man suffered severe burns after he accidentally poured hot oil over himself at a condiment shop in Vinayak Nagar here on Saturday night, police said.

Sathyaraj, a worker at Sowbhagya Mixture—a condiment manufacturing unit—slipped while emptying hot oil from a bucket into a container.

He then poured oil over himself by accident.

The oil was so hot that his skin peeled. He writhed in pain and screamed for help until his colleague Venkatesh rushed to his rescue and took him to a hospital, police said.

Sathyaraj was later taken to Victoria Hospital as he is critical.

“He has suffered from 73 per cent burns. We’ll visit the shop and check whether it had the necessary licence,” said a police officer who did not wish to be named.

The shop owner, Narayanaswamy, has been booked for negligence.