BENGALURU: A gang of five men, posing as policemen, allegedly kidnapped the manager of Muthoottu Mini Financiers Ltd at Mariyappanapalya on Outer Ring Road near Jnana Bharathi and made away with gold worth Rs 90 lakh on Thursday night. The gang also assaulted the manager before the robbery. This is the second time the branch has been targeted.
A senior police officer said that around 7.30pm on Thursday, the accused, who were said to be in police uniform, handcuffed the manager Nagendrappa after the staff had left the office for the day. The gang even broke the CCTV camera and damaged the digital video recorder. The security guard did not stop them as he believed they were real policemen.
The gang then forced Nagendrappa into an MUV claiming that they had to interrogate him in a case. They took him to Machohalli near Nelamangala and assaulted him. Early on Friday, they brought him back to the office and forced him to open the locker. The gang robbed gold worth `90 lakh and fled.
Not the first time
On August 14, 2012 , N Sudhakar (58), the manager at the branch was shot at from a pistol in a robbery bid in the afternoon. He survived with bullet injuries. Three robbers — identified as Rahul, Aravind Jain and Amjad Khan — arrived at the office on a motorcycle. One of them waited outside with the vehicle. Of the two who approached the office, one stood at the entrance while the other went inside. But police still have no clues about the accused and they are still at large. Sudhakar had snatched a bag from one of the three robbers. “I heard that a police team had gone to Uttar Pradesh and other states to nab the accused. But no arrest has been made so far. Soon after the incident, I resigned from that company and settled in Mysuru. It’s a miracle that I survived the bullet injuries.”