Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (RD/CN)
Udupi, Nov 14: Robbers, who had been terrorizing commuters on NH 17, have been nabbed following a swift police operation. Over the past three days, a series of robberies had been reported by truck drivers and car drivers using the highway.
The clue came in the form of a stolen black Innova car which was recovered from Pervai village by Beltangady police. The car had been used by the robbers when targeting businessman Shiva Kumar at Hiriyadka in the wee hours on Tuesday November 11,as well as looting of truck drivers on Wednesday November 12 at Katpady and other four cases.
Shiva Kumar was in his Maruti Esteem car driving by Yermal, on his way back from Tamil Nadu, when the robbers intercepted him and relieved him of gold jewellery, cash, and debit cards estimated at Rs 8 lac. The same group of robbers waylaid a truck carrying ‘copra’ from Kerala to Maharastra, and relieved the driver of cash and two mobile handsets on Wednesday morning.
Within the span of just half an hour, the group snatched cash and two mobile handsets from another truck driver and a cleaner at Beedu, near Padubidri. Another similar robbery took place near Kedinje, Bola village, in Karkala taluk on the state highway. The black Innova was sighted in all these cases.
Police went on high alert by setting up barricades at significant intersections and crossings all over Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. The black Innova was spotted approaching the barricade near Pulkeri, in Karkala, by the traffic police.
The driver of the Innova managed to escape by driving over the curb and the car was later found abandoned in Peruvai village, over a 100 kms away. The police also recovered the Maruti Esteem car stolen from businessman Shiva Kumar at Badyar on Guruvayanakere main road in Beltangady.
The black Innova car used in all these robberies was stolen from Haleangady. As reported earlier in these columns, the car belonged to a person from Haleangady whose driver was found murdered at Kalavar on Wednesday November 12 evening. He had gone to leave the relatives of his owner to Vamanjoor in Mangalore on Monday November 10 night and had not come back since. It is suspected that the robbers first waylaid him, killed him and then stole the car. Later they used the same car to rob others including businessman Shivkumar.
However, their luck ran out on Wednesday November 12 late night when they were finally nabbed by police near Beltangady. Police had received a sure tip-off that three members of the gang were traveling towards Chikmagalur on a bus from Mangalore. Accordingly police managed to get hold of them at Beltangady when the bus arrived around 11.30 pm. But one of them manhandled the sub-inspector and then fled the place while two others ran towards DCC bank. But the staff of Samata and Ganesh hotels along with locals managed to nab them.
They were later identified by a lorry driver who was robbed by these robbers at Padubidri. Initial probe by the police also revealed that they had robbed two more lorry drivers at Katpady and Karkala after killing the Innova car driver near Mulky.