BENGALURU: A sandalwood thief wanted in several cases, including chopping of a sandalwood tree on the premises of Chief Justice of Karnataka’s residence on Palace Road, was shot at and nabbed by Cubbon Park police after he attacked policemen.
Accused Mujahideen Ullah and police staff Rahim and Krishnamurthy have been hospitalised.Police said there were increasing incidents of sandalwood thefts in the city and some cases were registered in Cubbon Park police station. During investigation, police managed to arrest three of them — Lakshman, Ranganathan and Ramaswamy, all residents of Yercaud in Tamil Nadu. Based on their information, two main accused, Mujahideen Ullah and his brother Imdad Ullah, were arrested in Chikkaballapura on Monday night. They were brought to the city in the wee hours of Tuesday.
“They were being taken to Cubbon Park police station and while the vehicle was passing inside Cubbon Park Road parallel to the Queen’s Road around 1.30 am, Mujahideen pushed policeman Krishnamurthy from the moving vehicle and ran in the dark. The policemen went in search of him and found him after a while. When police sub-inspector (PSI) Raheem tried to nab him, the accused overpowered him and tried to strangulate him. Despite warnings, including a warning shot in the air, the accused did not pay heed. He also tried to attack another PSI with a bamboo stick. To protect his staff, inspector Iyanna Reddy opened fire at Mujahideen, injuring him in the right leg,” police said.