Five including three from Bengaluru arrested

Mysore/Mysuru: One cannot miss pigmy collectors in any business area of the city. They move swiftly, yet silently, from shop to shop, collecting small deposits. These faithful middlemen between banks and businessmen for decades have now become a target for robbers and as a couple of cases have been reported in the city, the Police have launched a major operation to arrest the criminals.

In one such operation, the Udayagiri Police have arrested five persons including three from Bengaluru who had targeted these deposit collectors.

Rs. 2 lakh worth of deposit money and other valuables that were snatched from the pigmy collectors have been seized. Dacoity cases have been booked against them.

Five incidents of robbery of pigmy collectors have been solved and interestingly, the Police had nabbed all the criminals within 24 hours of the crime being reported. The arrested are 25-year-old Saleem Pasha (Shivaji Road) and Fazil Khan (A.J. Block), both from N.R. Mohalla, Mysuru and 30-year-old Syed Riyaz, 25-year-old Saif Ali and 26-year-old Syed Nayaz, all three from Avalahalli at J.P. Nagar 9th Stage, Bengaluru.

The modus operandi of the accused is to waylay the pigmy collectors who had finished the day’s collection. On Nov. 23 at around 7.30 pm they targeted Ravi at Amba Bhavani Temple near N.R. Mohalla. His scooter was stopped by the five men who took away Rs. 10,000 from him.

As Ravi was an easy target, the dacoits decided to target more pigmy collectors and the very next day (Nov. 24), they robbed Swamy at Satagalli Extension and snatched Rs. 12,000 from their possession. In his Police complaint, Swamy stated that he and his friend were coming after their routine collection when five men in two scooters waylaid them and robbed the money after threatening. This crime had occurred at 2.30 pm.

The same day, criminals targeted Nagesh, another pigmy collector who was doing his job at Haleem Nagar. Nagesh had complained to the Police that he was walking in Haleem Nagar when one person dashed against him. While Nagesh tripped and fell, the other four dacoits surrounded him and snatched Rs. 20,000 and a mobile phone.

On Nov. 25, another pigmy collector Ganesh was robbed on a road near Udayagiri. As Ganesh was walking to finish his day’s collection deadline, the five persons blocked his way and threatened him with dire consequences if money was not handed over to them. Fearing consequences, Ganesh handed over Rs. 10,000 to the criminals.

The series of dacoits targeting pigmy collectors had become a headache to the Police and DCP (Crime and Traffic) Geetha Prasanna and ACP M.N. Shashidhar had formed a team led by Udayagiri Inspector P.K. Raju who successfully arrested the accused and recovered cash and valuables from them.

Rs. 43,500 cash, one mobile phone, two two-wheelers used in the crime all worth Rs. 2 lakh have been recovered.

With their arrest, the Police have solved four dacoity cases — two each in Udayagiri and Narasimharaja Police limits.

City Police Commissioner Dr. Chandragupta has lauded the efforts of the team involved in the operation.