Thieves who pickpocketed Rs 1.96L at BJP events held in Madikeri

Thirteen people were arrested for allegedly pickpocketing Rs 1.96 lakh from leaders, including former speaker K G Bopaiah, during a BJP rally in Kushalnagar and later during a party event held at Crystal Court Hall in Madikeri on March 27. The incident has come to light lately.

The arrested are Jayanna, Puttaraju, Nagaraja, Venkatesh R, Umesh K, Jayanna, Bojappa, Mehboob, Subhash, Girish D and Balu from Bhadravati, Harisha from Bengaluru Habbagodi and Ranganna from Nelamangala are the arrested.

Twenty mobile phones, two cars and Rs 2,65,960 in cash have been seized from the accused. The arrested are said to be interstate thieves.

The money was stolen from the pockets of BJP leaders M M Charan (Rs. 32,000), D H Chandrashekhar (Rs 50,000), Mani H (Rs 15,000) during a BJP programme at Kushalnagar and Nitin H S (Rs 50,000), Yogesh (Rs  32,300), former Speaker K G Boapaiah (Rs 17,000) at the programme held at Crystal Hall Madikeri.

The police had formed special teams to nab the thieves.

On April 2, the suspects were produced before the court.

The police have requested people to be cautious while participating in crowded events.