Mysore/Mysuru: The car, which two miscreants had hired at Mysuru and later had hijacked it near Kestur in Mandya after stabbing the driver and dragging him out, has been traced at Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district.

Details: Two persons, posing as customers, had hired a Toyota Etios car (KA-09-C-2358) to Tumakuru on the night of July 4 under the pretext of a medical emergency. As the car headed to Tumakuru dead in the night, the two asked the car driver 46-year-old Rudraswamy to stop near Kestur in Mandya district.

Soon as the car stopped, the two all of a sudden stabbed Rudraswamy and threw him out and sped away with the car.

Passersby, who noticed the injured Rudraswamy, shifted him to a nearby hospital. Later, the car owner and driver Rudraswamy’s friends and others flashed messages in WhatsApp and other social media groups about the incident. As the news was flashed all across the State, the Taxi Owners Association had kept a watch on the movement of the Etios car.

On July 6, it happened that a car driver noticed the hijacked Etios car moving around Belthangady in DK district and followed it for some distance, before the car went out of sight. Soon the matter was informed to the local Police who acted swiftly and enforced Nakabandi to stop the car from escaping out of the town.

The miscreants, who are said to have somehow come to know of Police moves, left the car on a road in the town and fled away, it is learnt.

Belthangady Police have taken custody of the abandoned Etios car. Meanwhile, the stabbed Etios car driver Rudraswamy who is being treated at a Mysuru hospital, is said to be recovering.