Armed gangs strike in Koramangala

Armed gangs seem to be striking at will in Koramangala.

The tech hub recently saw two cases of assault and abduction wherein a software engineer and an upcoming music composer became targets of robbers armed with lethal weapons. One case also took a drug-peddling spin.

Mayan Bhat, a 29-year-old software engineer, was attacked and robbed by a group of seven men while he was returning to his paying guest accommodation in Koramangala in the wee hours of Wednesday.

After night shift, Mayank was walking towards his PG accommodation at Jakkasandra when the group confronted him at the building gate. They overpowered him and snatched his wallet, backpack and mobile phone. The bag contained his PAN, Aadhaar and two ATM cards.

One of the accused slashed Mayank’s leg with a knife when he tried to resist. Mayank collapsed at the spot and a few paying guest inmates rushed to his help. He was later shifted to a hospital.

The Koramangala police have taken up a case of robbery and grievous assault. The accused are yet to be arrested.

In a similar case in Koramangala, the city police arrested a gang of three who barged into the house of an upcoming music composer, abducted, assaulted and robbed him before dumping him on the outskirts of the city on April 22.

The arrested have been identified as Nikul B S (22), Stephen Raj (25) and Venu Yadav (22) — all residents of Kammanahalli and Horamavu.

According to police, the victim, Madhupan S S, a resident of Koramangala 1st Block, was with his friends when a group of four barged into his house and assaulted the trio before snatching away their laptops, mobile phones and Rs 10,000 in cash.

The gang later found Madhupan’s ATM cards. When he refused to share the PIN number, they gagged Madhupan, tied him up and bundled him into their SUV parked outside. The men kept assaulting and torturing him with a blade for several hours for the PIN, but Madhupan didn’t give in. At last, they dumped him on a barbed wire fence near Avalahalli in KR Puram, East Bengaluru. A few passersby noticed Madhupan and informed the police. The police rushed him to Bowring Hospital and based on his complaint, they tracked down the accused based on their car’s registration number.

The police learnt that the accused and the complainant were friends, and were into drug-peddling. They also learnt that the same gang had recently abducted a gutka seller and robbed him of Rs 6 lakh.

Nikul, one of the accused, is learnt to be the son of a retired SP-rank officer from Kerala. The police also recovered 5 kg of marijuana from the accused.

“In the first case, we have formed a special team to nab the robbers. In the second, we found that the accused and the complainant were close friends and there was a dispute regarding money earned from drug deals,” Isha Pant, DCP Southeast, told DH.