Bengaluru: Dance teacher stabbed to death in robbery bid

BENGALURU: In a robbery bid, a gang of four men stabbed a 30-year-old dance teacher to death after he tried to resist them in RMC Layout on Saturday night. To escape from the attack, the injured ran for a distance but collapsed on a footpath.

The deceased has been identified as Prem Goutham, a native of Hassan, who was working as a dance teacher in a private school and also as a civil contractor in Hassan Municipality corporation. He was married three years ago and has a two-year-old daughter.

A police officer said the incident took place around 12.30am. Goutham had come to the city to act in a short film called Bethala. His friend Shivakumar, who is directing the short film, had contacted Goutham over phone and asked him to come to Bhumika theatre in Goraguntepalya. He reached the city around 11pm and called him to say that he was walking towards the theatre.

Meanwhile, a gang of robbers waylaid him and tried to rob his valuables. As he resisted them, the gang hit him in his face and stabbed him in the thigh thrice before fleeing the scene. The injured, Goutham, ran towards the theatre and collapsed on the way due to heavy bleeding.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar tried to contact Goutham over phone, but it was switched off. The incident came to light in the early hours on Sunday when passers-by noticed the body and alerted RMC Yard police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the body to Victoria hospital for a postmortem examination.

Based on the identity card found in Gautham’s bag, the police contacted his family members, who in turn, informed Shivakumar about the incident. “We are verifying the CCTV footage to ascertain the identity of the robbers and a special team has been formed to probe the case,” an investigation officer said.