Auto driver arrested for looting student in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Crucial CCTV footage led to the arrest of an autorickshaw driver, who robbed a gold chain and a ring from a 20-year-old college student, police officials said on Tuesday. 

The boy had apparently run away from home. 

The HAL police arrested the auto driver Sadiq alias Anil, who resides in northeast Bengaluru’s MS Palya. Sadiq allegedly stole the student's bag and deserted him midway to a bus stand. 

On April 4, the student’s mother filed a missing complaint at the HAL station, saying her son ran away from home after being chided for spending too much time with his friends. The police launched a manhunt and traced him to Odisha’s Puri Jagannath temple. 

According to the police, when he returned home, his parents noticed his chain and ring were missing.

They filed another complaint, claiming that an autorickshaw driver who picked up the boy from Basavanagar near Doddanekundi deserted him midway to Majestic and took away his bag.  

“Near Ramesh Nagar, the autorickshaw driver stopped the vehicle to attend to nature's call. The boy also got down, leaving his bag inside the vehicle. Sadiq quickly drove away,” according to the parents' complaint. 

Police swiftly gathered CCTV footage from an ATM near Ramesh Nagar after the boy told them that the auto driver had helped him withdraw money. 

“We gathered footage from all the CCTVs along the route and identified the suspect. He was arrested from his house in MS Palya after his vehicle was identified,” an investigator told DH. 

The investigator said that Sadiq had mortgaged the gold in a private finance company under his wife’s name. “We have recovered the gold robbed by the suspect,” said the officer.