Bengaluru: Musician mugged, cops refuse to take up case

Bengaluru: A 26-year-old musician had a terrible experience when his two-wheeler got punctured in the midnight and he got mugged by a gang of 6-7 goons. What was worse was that the police refused to take up a robbery case and gave him only an acknowledgement, stating that he had ‘lost’ his mobile phone, cash and other important documents.

Maxwell A.L., a musician and a beat boxer, had gone to an event near Devanahalli on Tuesday evening. It was late in the night when the event got over and he headed home on his two-wheeler. As he was passing on a flyover on KIA Road in Yelahanka, the tyre got punctured. After pushing the vehicle for almost an hour, he reached the end of the flyover and joined the Jakkur Service road. As he was planning to park the vehicle near Byatarayanapura bus stop around 2 am, he was accosted by the gang.

Maxwell told Deccan Chronicle, “When I reached the bus stop, a silver colour yellow board Etios car overtook me and stopped. Seven people got out of the car and one of them asked me for the way to Hebbal. As I was guiding him, another person asked me to give away my phone. Shocked, I refused to give him the phone and a guy in the group punched my face, while the other attacked me with an iron rod. All the seven assaulted me and robbed my cellphone worth Rs 10,000, cash of Rs 2,000, and the wallet, which had a debit card and documents including my Aadhaar card, voter ID, PAN card and the DL.”

He tried to note down the registration number of the car, but found that it was covered with a black sticker. He managed to reach the Kodigehalli police station. But the staff at the police station allegedly yelled at him for being there at such an odd hour. Despite being a clear case of dacoity, the police only gave him an acknowledgement for ‘lost’ documents instead of registering an FIR, claiming this was the third similar incident and they would look into it. It was only after he posted his ordeal on Facebook that the Bengaluru City Police responded and directed the DCP North East to look into it. DCP P.S. Harsha said, “We have registered an FIR in connection with the case and are investigating. We are inquiring why the staff at the station did not register an FIR initially.”