Blood on wheels! Thieves ‘paint’ their way to a fortune

Praveen Kumar | NT

Bengaluru: Attention diversion tactics are nothing new in a city where gangs are known to vanish with their booty in the wink of an eye duping gullible citizens. But who would have imagined that this gang would painstakingly paint the car tyres to convince a bank customer that he had been involved in an accident? And then vanish with the money as the hapless victim tried to make sense of an accident which never happened?

A 48-year-old man who works in a transport agency fell to such a trick and lost cash and the mangalasutra of his wife, together valued at about `5 lakh. The victim was on his way to hand over the cash to the owner of a house which he was taking on lease.

“I had gone to a bank near Zindal and withdrew Rs 3 lakhs from my account. I was on my way to arrange another Rs 2 lakhs for which I had taken my wife’s mangalasutra to pledge it. Enroute, I stopped my Maruti car at the tea shop of my friend and kept the cash bag on the shop table,” the victim Omesha told NT.

“While I was having tea, an unidentified person approached me saying there were blood stains on my car’s tyres. I immediately rushed to the car and saw something which looked like blood. I and my friend checked the stains with a cloth and then found that it was mere paint. We returned to the shop and to our dismay, the bag with the cash and mangalasutra had disappeared,” Omesha added.

“Video footage of the vicinity shows there were over five gang members on three Pulsar bikes. The accused reportedly observed the movement of the victim from the bank. When the car was parked near the bank, the gang splashed red paint on the rear tyres,” said an officer who is part of the investigation.

A case of cheating under section 420 of the IPC has been registered against the unidentified accused.