Date:08/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/08/stories/2007040817240500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Crime Notes

Staff Reporter

Duo poses as BDA staff, beats up and robs woman

BANGALORE: Posing as Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) employees, two men assaulted an architect and looted cash, a camera and gold ornaments from her house in HSR Layout on Friday afternoon.

Police said that a week ago Ruby Paul Kurien, an IT professional and a resident of Sector-2, HSR Layout, received a notice from BDA to pay the property tax that was due.

Around 1.30 p.m. on Friday, two men came to Kurien's house when his wife Bindu Thampi, an architect, was alone at home and introduced themselves as BDA employees.

The duo told her that the notice she had received from the BDA was wrongly delivered and asked her to return it. When she went in to get it, the two locked the main door, tied Bindu's hands and legs with a rope and beat her. They made away with gold ornaments, a camera and other valuables worth Rs. 1 lakh. The HSR Layout police have registered a case.

Chain snatched

Two men on a motorcycle snatched a gold chain worth Rs. 16,000 from a woman in Peenya police station limits on Friday afternoon.

The duo snatched the chain from Savitha while she was walking near the Durga Temple in HMT Layout. The Peenya police have registered a case.

Two killed

Two persons were killed in as many road accidents in K.R. Puram traffic police station limits on Friday night. Dharmendra (22) was killed after a lorry hit his bicycle at Chinnappanahalli Bande, near Mahadevapura, around 7.30 p.m. A native of Uttar Pradesh, he was working as a painter here.

In the other incident, Krishna Murthy (45), a pedestrian, was killed after he was knocked down by a multi-utility vehicle near B. Narayanapura on the Ring Road around 8.30 p.m.

Murthy, a construction worker, was a resident of B. Narayanapura.

The K.R. Puram traffic police have registered separate cases.

Cinema raided

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) staff on Friday raided a cinema in Fraser Town police station limits and arrested four persons, including its manager, on charges of screening porn. The police said pornographic bits were inserted in a Malayalam movie and screened at the cinema.

Eight arrested

The Cubbon Park Police have arrested eight hotel-employees- turned-robbers, who allegedly lured people, took them to hotels and robbed them of their belongings.

The gang comprising Narayan, Kitty, Venkateshwara Reddy, Veeresh, Shankara alias Tamil, Jayaram, Basvaraja and Shankar, all in the age group of 20 to 25 from Hassan, Sakleshpur, Mysore and Kolar, allegedly lured gullible people in the park on the pretext of providing them with prostitutes.

The victims were then taken to lodges where the gang reportedly assaulted them and robbed them, police added.

The eight, basically from poor families, stayed together in a dormitory in Majestic area.

It was here that they hatched plans to rob people. They had been doing this for the past three years, police said.

The police first arrested Narayan on Thursday night and acting on clues given by him, they later arrested the others.