The Parappana Agrahara police have arrested three men who allegedly offered a software engineer a ride to Chennai but instead tortured him for several hours and used his ATM card to draw ₹45,000 from his account. The alleged incident occurred on Friday morning around 1 a.m.
One of the men who has been arrested, Ganesh, 29, is a habitual offender. He had been released from Central Jail, Parappana Agrahara a few days back. The others have been identified as Sridhara, 30, and Umesha, 20.
“Ganesh was involved in over six robbery cases in and around the city. Once he made bail, he reconnected with his associates,” said M.B. Boralaingaiah, DCP South East.
The accused would move around in a van looking for victims. Early Friday morning, they spotted Anurag Sharma, who had missed his bus to Chennai, waiting for transport on Hosur Road. He accepted their offer for a ride. But once he entered van, the men overpowered him in the moving car, bound his hands and legs. They took his wallet, which had ₹2,000 and his debit card. They used the card to withdraw money at various ATMs
When they released him around 8 a.m., Sharma approached the police.
“Despite his ordeal, he was able to give a physical description of his attackers, and their names, which he overhead while they were talking to each other. We verified CCTV footage on Hosur Road, in and around ATM centres,” said a police officer.
During questioning, Ganesh told the police that he was planning to kill his arch rival Shobharaj, another habitual offender. The police are on the lookout for one more member of the gang, who is on the run.
The trio have been remanded in judicial custody.
