Date:23/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/23/stories/2006092324070300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Dacoit gang attacks lorry driver

Staff Reporter

He was hit with clubs on Bangalore-Kolar Highway

BANGALORE: An eight-member gang attacked a lorry driver on Bangalore-Kolar Highway on Thursday night and drove away with the lorry that was laden with aluminium spares.

The police put the value of the lorry and aluminium goods together at Rs. 15 lakh.

The police said Govinda Reddy, the owner-cum-driver of the lorry, was transporting the aluminium spares from Peenya Industrial Estate to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. Around 11.30 p.m., the armed dacoits waylaid the lorry on Bangalore-Kolar Highway in Hoskote police station limits in Bangalore Rural district.

They attacked Reddy with clubs, pushed him out of the lorry and sped away.

On a complaint by Reddy, the Hoskote police have registered a case.

Sandalwood stolen

Thieves felled a sandalwood tree on the Jnana Bharathi campus in the early hours of Friday and made away with the logs. The police have put the value of the stolen sandalwood at Rs. 50,000.

The fully-grown sandalwood tree was near the Department of Atomic Energy on the campus, the police said. The Jnana Bharathi police have registered a case.

Suicides

Two persons committed suicide at their houses in Basaveshwaranagar police station limits on Thursday.

The police said that following a quarrel with his wife, Shankare Gowda (38) hanged himself at his house in Kamalanagar. He was a native of Maddur in Mandya district.

In the other incident, Akash (23) of Lakshminarayana Nagar ended his life by consuming poison. He was suffering from chronic stomach pain, the police said.