Bellandur cop stabbed, 2 abductors shot at

BENGALURU: The Bellandur police opened fire at two accused, who were involved in a kidnapping case, after they attacked one of the constables on the outskirts of the city early on Monday morning. 

The two were later arrested for kidnapping a 28-year-old woman on March 18 from Kasavanahalli Main Road. The victim's mother had then said that her daughter was not kidnapped, but had gone out of the house and returned the next day on her own.

The accused were identified as Shankar, 25, and Selva Kumar, 30, both from Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu.

In the early hours of Monday, Shankar and Selva crashed through police barricades near Sarjapur Road. Bellandur police, led by Inspector Victor Simon, chased them and intercepted them near Kodathi BMTC quarters. The two got down from their car and tried to escape when the police fired a warning shot in the air. But one of the accused, who was holding a knife, stabbed a constable and the police, to defend themselves, shot both the accused. The injured constable, Mahantesh, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he is being treated.

The woman was kidnapped from Kasavanahalli Main Road around 10 pm on March 18, and passersby, who witnessed the crime, immediately informed the city police control room. The message was passed on to the Whitefield division police, who formed four teams to trace the woman.

But the next day, the woman returned home and got herself admitted to a hospital. She refused to give a statement to the police. The victim’s mother told them that her daughter had left the house and returned on her own.

Later, the victim confessed to the police that she was kidnapped while she was walking near Kasavanahalli Main Road that day. A car approached her and two men who were sitting in the backseat tried talking to her and passed lewd comments. When she tried to leave the place, they forced her into the car and sped away. The driver and the two men, who were drunk, sexually harassed her in the car before she managed to escape. She later went to her relative’s house and spent the night there before returning home the next day.

Meanwhile, the special teams, which were investigating the case, found out that the accused had used a white Tata Indica car with Tamil Nadu registration. On Monday morning, the Bellandur police had put up a temporary checkpost and were checking the vehicles when the two accused crashed through the barricades. The police chased them and arrested them.

Investigations revealed that the accused had thought the woman was a prostitute and kidnapped her in a drunken state.

A senior official said that a sexual harassment case has been registered against them and the investigations are on.