BENGALURU: A 68-year-old man trying to help strangers put his family, including two women and two grandchildren, at risk. Three unidentified robbers locked the senior citizen inside a toilet, threatened the women and robbed them of their gold ornaments worth around Rs 3 lakhs. The incident happened between 3am and 3.10am on Friday, in Hanumanthnagar, off Magadi Main Road.
The aged man came out of the house to use the spare toilet to attend nature’s call. He had kept the main door of the house open. On seeing some strangers outside the compound, he went near the gate and opened it in a bid to help them. The accused, on the pretext of looking for an address, pushed him inside the toilet, went into the house and robbed the family members.
The victim, G Nanjappa, filed a complaint. “The toilet is inside the compound. It was my mistake to try and help the robbers. They locked the toilet door from outside. They didn’t harm the women or my grandchildren,” Nanjappa told TNIE.
The accused rushed into the house and tried to break open the almirah. Hearing the sound, the women woke up and started screaming. The accused held them and took the valuables, and didn’t forget to unlock the toilet door before fleeing.
“Before this robbery, the accused had gone to another house and tried to wake up the occupants and ask them for drinking water. The occupants refused to open the door and told them to drink water from a nearby borewell. The men insisted that they at least give them water bottles, to get them to open the door, but the clever occupants threw a bottle from a window and shooed them away,” said an officer who is part of investigations. A case of robbery under Section 392 IPC was registered against the unidentified accused. Investigations are on.