Kodagu journalist’s gun, ammo vanish from his car in Mysuru

Mysore/Mysuru: A case has been registered at Narasimharaja (NR) Police Station after a revolver and eight live bullets belonging to a journalist from Kodagu went missing from his car while it was left for repair at a garage near Tipu Circle in Mysuru.

The complainant, P.B. Timmaiah, 52, a coffee estate owner from Cherala Srimangala village in Kushalnagar in Kodagu, who also works as a journalist, stated in his complaint that he had purchased a .22 bore revolver and 100 live bullets in 2016 after obtaining a valid firearm licence for self-defence.

Incident on Oct. 22: He stated in Police complaint, lodged on Oct. 24, that he had arrived in Mysuru on Oct. 22, in his Ford car (KA-12-N-2969) to get it repaired. As the work could not be completed the same day, he stayed overnight at a hotel.

The next day at around 8.30 am, he took the revolver from his pants pocket and placed it — along with eight live bullets — inside a rifle case in the zip pocket behind the front passenger seat of his car. He zipped it shut before heading to Tipu Circle to purchase new headlights.

Finding the shops closed, he went to buy BP tablets near the Sub-Urban Bus Stand, but as the medical stores there were also closed, he booked a rental bike ride and purchased the tablets from another location, he stated in the complaint

Repair works at garage

At around 10 am, he returned to Tipu Circle, bought the headlights, and took the car to a garage owned by a man named Khizar to install the new lights.

While the work was underway, Timmaiah noticed that the car doors were tight and requested the mechanics to fix the door locks. He once again booked a bike ride to buy new locks from a nearby shop, but on returning, the garage owner informed him that the locks wouldn’t fit.

After returning the locks and having lunch, he came back to the garage around 5.30 pm, where the car was ready by 8.45 pm. Timmaiah drove away from garage, had dinner near Bamboo Bazaar, and later parked his car near dormitory behind Sub-Urban Bus Stand, to stay overnight.

Gun, bullets missing

Around 8 pm, he opened the zip pocket behind the driver’s seat to take the revolver with him — but found that both the revolver and the eight live bullets were missing.

Suspecting theft, he immediately contacted Khizar, who subsequently asked Giddu, the mechanic who had worked on the car doors. Both denied any knowledge of the weapon.

As the firearm and bullets had been stolen, Timmaiah revisited garage to inquire further, but in vain. He lodged a complaint at N.R. Police Station, who confirmed to Star of Mysore this morning that a case has been registered under Section 303 (theft) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).