Member of tricksters' gang from TN arrested

The south division police have arrested a 30-year-old member of a notorious attention-diversion gang identified as Selvam from Tamil Nadu.

The police are on the lookout for his other associates, all of them hailing from Ramjinagar in Trichy, the police said. The gang adopts several modus operandi of attention diversion like puncturing tyres of their victims’ vehicles, telling them fuel is leaking from their vehicles, hurling chemical powder which causes itching, throwing ink or other coloured substance on victims’ clothes to confuse them, throwing chilli-powder and also diverting attention by pointing to currency notes lying on the road near the victims’ vehicles to steal cash and valuables from their vehicles.

Recently, there was a spate of such incidents in South Bengaluru like Jayanagar and Siddapur, a senior police officer said. On September 8, a 32-year businessman was robbed of Rs 5.6 lakh from Siddapur after the gang members punctured his scooter.

In another case recently, a man was robbed of Rs 4 lakh from an autorickshaw in Jayanagar after he withdrew cash from a bank. One gang member was in the bank informing his accomplices about the victim’s description. They then followed his autorickshaw and indicated that fuel was leaking from the auto. When the auto driver and the passenger, who received a phone call, got down to check, one of the gang members made away with the passenger’s cash.

In another incident, a doctor who was alighting from his car was informed by a man that some currency notes fell down from his car. When he got down to pick them up, another man opened his rear door and escaped with Rs 4 lakh cash. The entire incident was caught on CCTV camera.