The police are on the lookout for a gang of robbers who targeted two people after diverting their attention, using an ‘itching powder’. A 75-year-old man and a 56-year-old man lost a total of ₹3.4 lakh in HAL and Rajarajeshwarinagar police station limits.
One of the victims, Abdul Hafeez, 75, a Whitefield resident and retired government employee, was robbed of ₹40,000 that he had withdrawn at a bank in J.B. Nagar on Saturday.
He told the police that he kept the cash bag in the boot of the scooter. As he approached the HAL Hospital, his felt his back itching. He parked the two-wheeler and moved aside to dust his shirt. On return, he found the boot of the scooter open and the bag, which also contained pension book, passbook, and cheque book, missing.
In a similar incident, businessman Hanuman Singh lost ₹3 lakh on Thursday. He too had withdrawn the money from a bank, and kept it in the scooter boot. On the way to meet his business partner, one of the scooter tyres got punctured, and he stopped by a mechanic’s shop at R.R. Nagar to get it fixed.
While the tyre was being repaired, three men came to the shop. Soon after, Mr. Singh felt his neck and back itching. “It became so unbearable that he went to a private hospital, and called his wife. At the hospital, Singh asked his wife to retrieve the cash bag from the scooter, but it was missing,” said the police. “In both cases, itching powder was used and we suspect the same gang behind the attacks.”
The police are verifying the CCTV camera footage to identify the accused.