Bengaluru, Sep 5: A ride offered by a stranger proved costly for a techie and a couple, as two men were robbed and thrown out of the car while the miscreants fled away with the woman on a highway in Bengaluru.
The police tried to locate the car on the highway, but found no success. Now, three days since the incident, there is still no trace of the car (that had no registration number) or the woman, said to be in her mid-30s.
In his complaint, Lalith Kumar Yadav (23), a resident of south-east Bengaluru, who was kicked out of the vehicle on a desolate stretch of the highway, said that the driver of a white Maruti Swift car came up to him and offered him a ride when he was waiting for a bus at Jalahalli cross on the highway to get to Sira in Tumakuru at 3 am.
Lalith said he noticed the couple sitting in the backseat and thought it would be safe to catch the ride. He could hear the couple talking to each other and the woman growing uncomfortable with the presence of strangers in the vehicle.
The driver also overheard the conversation and asked the woman to move to the front seat, next to him, as he would pick up one more passenger who would sit at the back. The man accompanying her approved and she moved to the front seat.
After the driver picked up the new passenger on Tumakuru road, he got off the highway. When the techie asked why he was deviating from the normal route, he told him that it was a shortcut and he knew the route better than anyone in the vehicle.
After moving for around a km, the man who got into the car last took out a dagger. He and the driver threatened Lalith and the couple, warning them against making noise. He hit Lalith and took Rs 1,500 cash from his wallet. He also took his mobile but gave it back it after taking out the SIM card, and pushed him out of the car.
He told the police that the other male passenger was also thrown out of the vehicle. The driver and his accomplice fled away with the woman, even as the man started running behind the car. After that he lost track of the man. Lalith managed to reach a few policemen who alerted the control room.
The patrolling police were told about the white Swift car without a number plate. Soon the police started covering all the exit points, including tollgates. A police subinspector and his team noticed a car that matched the description and chased it for about 3 km, but the miscreants managed to escape. Deputy commissioner of police (north) TR Suresh said they were yet to establish the whereabouts of the vehicle, or if there was a woman in the car. He strongly advised people against getting into unknown vehicles.
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