BENGALURU: The alertness of a 32-year-old cab owner who had been kidnapped, gagged, tied and robbed of his SUV, cash and other valuables by a gang of seven dacoits on the Bengaluru-Kanakapura Road, helped him get back his vehicle which the accused had abandoned.
For KN Devaraj, a native of Koratagere, it was an ordeal which went on for almost four hours early on Friday. The accused had booked his Toyota Innova to go to Budigere on Old Madras Road, from Chandapura Circle. As soon as Devaraj picked up the men, they attacked him, pushed him into the middle seat and bound him, and drove towards Anekal, Jigani and Bannerghatta.
En route, they forced him to divulge his debit card pin and withdrew money from an ATM kiosk. They also collected his M-PIN (mobile pin) and transferred Rs 75,000 from his account.
“They were all below the age of 30, and spoke Hindi. They even discussed how to kill me -- whether to pour diesel on me and set me on fire, or throw me into a lake,” Devaraj recalled.
The accused then changed their mind, and pushed him out of the Innova near a temple in Harohalli, on the Bengaluru-Kanakapura Road.
Devaraj managed to free himself by cutting the tape used to tie him, and sought the help of the public to inform the police. The gang had taken away both his phones, and one of them was linked to the SUV’s GPS tracking device. Devaraj took police help and logged on to find his vehicle, which was new and bought with a loan.
“I was extremely worried about my SUV. However, the vehicle has a GPS tracker. I had linked my smartphone to Google, and first tracked it through ‘find my phone’ software, by entering the phone number. The tower location was near Bannerghatta, and as we went towards it, we found the SUV. The gang had abandoned the SUV but taken the vehicle documents,” he told TNIE.
Police are checking CCTV footage in Chandapura, Anekal, Jigani and other areas, and suspect that the accused could be construction labourers who had run out of money to buy alcohol.Harohalli police registered a case of dacoity under Section 397 of the IPC.