BENGALURU: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s desilting work at Bellandur Lake on Friday afternoon sent Marathahalli police into a tizzy. As the work progressed, BBMP workers and marshals at the site behind Duggalamma Temple were shocked to see a Maruti Esteem car in a broken-down condition, half-covered in silt on the lake’s banks — that too, without tyres or steering wheel, but with the registration plate still attached.
Suspecting foul play, the BBMP staff alerted Marathahalli police. After a thorough search of the vehicle, the police found no body or valuables as suspected, but protocol demanded that they establish whether it was a stolen car, or was used in a crime. A senior police officer said with the vehicle’s registration number, they tracked the car’s owner, a businessman from Indiranagar.
On questioning him, the police learnt that he had used the vehicle for ten years and abandoned it as it was getting old. He left it behind the temple two years ago, but could not remember the exact date. The officer said it is common to find abandoned cars in Bengaluru and outskirts. The officer said they did not find any report in any police station of the car being stolen.
“We have asked the businessman (whose name has been withheld) to explain as to why he abandoned the car at the lake. It is sheer negligence on his part,” he said, adding that they are still probing the case.