BENGALURU: A gang of three men and two women is prowling around Cubbon Park targeting lone men to rob them. A 43-year-old software engineer Nanda Kishore Rao learnt this the hard way on Friday when he was badly beaten up by the gang and ended up in a hospital, only to discover that the man in the next bed was also beaten up by the same gang, that too in the same place — Cubbon Park — just hours before they had targeted him.
Rao, a resident of Banashankari Stage II, on Friday had visited his uncle’s place in Central Business District (CBD) for lunch. In the evening, went to ‘Karagada Kunte’, in Cubbon Park, and sat there for a while “I was tired so I was just relaxing there when a group of three men and two women came and asked me what I was doing there. I told them I am just sitting. The place had a small temple with three goddess’ photos, but they began scolding me claiming that the place belonged to them,” Rao said.
When Rao said he would complain to the police, the men called someone over the mobile phone and then started hitting him with a wooden log. “They repeatedly hit me on my head and I started bleeding profusely. They took my wallet and shoes and kept hitting me till I reached the road, which was around 100 metres from Karagada Kunte. I asked them to give me back my valuables but they refused. When I was boarding an autorickshaw to go to a hospital, they returned my wallet, but not money inside it and my shoes,” he said.
Rao went to Bowring hospital for treatment for his head injuries. “There, I found another person who had visited the same place and was attacked by the same gang. I think they have planned and attacked us,” Rao said. An investigating officer from Cubbon Park police station said, “We have taken up a case of assault and making efforts to nab the attackers. Once we catch them, we will find out why they attacked Rao.”