Five, including two women, held for robbing ayurvedic therapist in Bengaluru

Five people, including two women, have been arrested by the Kodigehalli police for allegedly planning and executing a robbery at an ayurvedic therapy centre in Thindlu, northeast Bengaluru.

The arrested — Guru, Renuka, Prabhavathi, Rudresh, and Sandeep — are aged between 30 and 40.

At 8:30 am on December 14, Prabhavathi visited the Ganga Ayurvedic Centre on Kodigehalli main road. Two men followed her on the pretext of meeting her and pressed a chloroform-laced handkerchief on the face of the therapist, Anushree.

When Anushree lost consciousness, another man entered the centre, tied her up, took away gold ornaments worth Rs 2.5 lakh along with her mobile phone. They also locked a customer inside the bathroom.

Police used CCTV footage and few other leads to zero in on the suspects.

While interrogating the gang, police learnt that Prabhavathi visited the centre the previous day, made an appointment for the following day and observed the premises to plan the robbery.

On the day of the incident, Prabhavathi arrived at the centre an hour early, but noticed a customer was already there. She waited until the customer went to take a shower and then asked her accomplices to enter.

Anushree united herself on regaining consciousness and opened the bathroom door where the customer was locked in. Together they filed a complaint at the Kodigehalli police station.

Following the arrest, the police recovered the stolen gold and two bikes from the suspects.

An FIR has been filed under IPC Section 392 (attempt to commit robbery).