Monday, February 4, 2019

Chennai techie abducted for 8hrs, robbed of ₹45k

Kiran.Parashar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:04.02.2019

A 25-year-old software engineer from Chennai was abducted in a minivan, blindfolded, assaulted and robbed of ₹45,000 — all in a span of eight hours — before being abandoned by a four-member gang in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Friday.

Anurag Sharma, who works with Infosys in Chennai as a senior systems manager, was returning home after attending official work and a family event in Bengaluru.

Anurag was to leave for Chennai in a bus operated by SRS Travels around 11.50pm on January 31. “My bus was scheduled to arrive at the Bommasandra stop around 11.50pm but it didn’t. As I kept waiting, a Maruti Omni car pulled over near the Audi service centre in Electronic City phase-2. I approached the van to find out if they ferried people. There were two passengers and one of them told me that they were heading to Hosur. The next moment, the duo pulled me into the car, and two other strangers waiting at the bus stop too rushed in. They sped away immediately,” Anurag Sharma told TOI.

What followed next was eight hours of horror and inexplicable trauma. As soon as Anurag was dragged in, the miscreants began raining blows on him in the moving car. “One punched me with his fist, while the other hit me on my leg with an iron rod. They snatched my wallet and my mobile phone. They pinned me down to the car’s floor and then blindfolded me and made me immobile by wrapping a thick blanket around,” he said.

When they asked him for the debit card PIN, Anurag initially refused. He was then threatened at knifepoint, and fearing for his life, Anruag shared the PIN. “They may have driven me around the city as I remember being taken to at least four ATM kiosks. They had withdrawn ₹45,000 from my account using my debit card,” he said.

Every time Anurag tried to plead for his life, the gang members assaulted him. The horrifying episode played out until 8.30am on Friday, when he was finally thrown out of the van to a deserted stretch near Chandapura. An injured Anurag then managed to get himself admitted to Narayana Multi-Specialty Hospital. He later filed a complaint at Parappana Agrahara police station.

Anurag was working with the Mysuru Infosys before shifting to his hometown in Chennai. “I vividly remember two names — Rahul and Umesh — being used repeatedly by the gangsters,” he said.

DCP (south east) Boralingaiah said a hunt is on to arrest the gangsters. “We’ll arrest them in a day or two. We have got crucial clues and have identified the accused,” he added.

Anurag Sharma works with Infosys in Chennai as a senior systems manager

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