Rs. 20,000 cash, one bike, two mobile phones seized

Mysuru:  Metagalli Police have arrested two notorious criminals who were involved in 13 robbery and extortion cases and have recovered Rs. 20,000 cash besides seizing one bike and two mobile phones from them.

According to a press release from the Office of the City Police Commissioner dated Mar. 18, the arrested are 28-year-old Zamir Khan and 42-year-old Shankar, both from Rajendra Nagar.

The release further states that on Feb. 22, 2021, a resident of Vijayanagar 3rd Stage was proceeding to Pandavapura in his car and while moving on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway near Siddalingapura, he heard a sound and assuming that a stone may had hit the car, he continued his journey towards Pandavapura.

But all of a sudden, two people on a bike overtook his car, forced him to stop and told him that he had hit their bike and the pillion rider had fractured his leg. He demanded the car owner to get the pillion treated in a hospital or pay money so that he could get him treated. The bike rider also threatened the car owner of lodging a hit and run complaint with the Police besides abusing the car owner using foul language.

Meanwhile, the pillion rider, who had poured water on one of his legs, began to fake injury and abused the car owner. Shocked over this, the car owner gave them Rs. 1,000 cash, which was with him. But the two, not happy with the amount demanded the car owner to withdraw cash from an ATM and give them. As the car owner had not brought his ATM card, the duo asks him to transfer money using Google Pay. The car owner then gets Rs. 19,000 transferred to them from his relatives, following which the bikers leave him and go away.  

A case pertaining to extortion and threatening was lodged at Metagalli Police Station against the bikers and based on technical evidence and information from informants, Metagalli Police arrested the two on Mar. 17.

During interrogation, the accused are said to have told the Police that it was they who had banged the car without the knowledge of the car owner and threatened the car owner besides extorting Rs. 20,000 from him.

During further investigation, the Police came to know that Prime Accused Zamir Khan along with another accused Mohammed Zamir of Rajendra Nagar were involved in a similar crimes from 2017 till date and had 12 cases of robbery and extortion already registered in Kuvempunagar, V.V. Puram, Jayalakshmipuram, Saraswathipuram, Narasimharaja, Yelwal, Maddur, Srirangapatna Rural and Town, Chamarajpet and Kumbalagodu (Bengaluru) and Mandya Rural Police Stations.

The accused had also committed various crimes on Mysuru-Bengaluru Road, in Srirangapatna, Ring Road of Mysuru City and on prominent roads and had looted cash and gold from the public. As few victims had not lodged complaints the incidents had not come to light. 

DCPs Dr. A.N. Prakash Gowda (Law and Order) and M.S. Geetha Prasanna (Crime and Traffic) and Narasimharaja Sub-Division ACP Shivashankar guided Metagalli Inspector A. Mallesh, Sub-Inspectors Vishwanath and Nagaraja Nayak, ASIs Ponnappa and Mahadev and staff Diwakar, Prashanth, Basavaraju, Likith and Asha in the nabbing and seizing operation.