Muggers force victim to do an UPI transfer, nabbed

Police track down the money trail; Incident happened at a brick factory on Sarjapura Road

Praveen Kumar | NT

Bengaluru: A 46-year-old civil engineer was attacked and robbed a few days ago by four muggers inside a hollow bricks factory on Sarjapura Road. The gang, including a juvenile, assaulted the victim and then made him transfer money to their account through UPI transactions.

However, this also proved to be their undoing as the police was able to easily track the money trail and arrest the gang.

The victim, identified as V.S. Rao, a resident of Puttenahalli in JP Nagar, was robbed when he went to check the quality of bricks at Sairam concrete bricks factory located in Dommasandra on the Sarjapura Road.

As nobody else was there in the factory, the gang decided to rob him. They attacked him with a wooden plank. “I went inside alone to check the quality of the hollow blocks for construction work, but was unaware that a group of muggers were following me. It was around 12.50 pm noon. The muggers grabbed me and took me inside the factory. When I started screaming, they hit me with a wooden plank and gagged me,” Rao told NT.

“After finding my mobile with me, they forced me to tell them the password. After realising that my phone had an UPI app, they made me transfer Rs 35,000 to one of their accounts. They also took away my 35 gram gold chain and my mobile phone,” the victim said. This fund transfer helped the police arrest one of the accused, who is a minor.

“The robbed valuables have been recovered and handed over to the court so that the victim can take it from there,” said an officer on part of investigations. As per the procedure, since an FIR has been registered the victim has to approach the court to take possession of his valuables. The concerned Shirastedar is responsible for them.

A case of causing hurt in committing robbery under section 394 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the accused.