BENGALURU: In a case of attention diversion, two bike-borne men threw Rs 10 currency notes before a mason and escaped with Rs 50,000. The incident took place around 3.20 pm in HSR Layout on Monday, shortly after the victim Mallikarjun, a resident of Mangammanapalya, had withdrawn the cash from Canara Bank.

A police officer said that Mallikarjun (37) was about to start his vehicle when the miscreants approached him, stating that the money had fallen down. He found six notes of Rs 10 and went to pick them up when the culprits fled with the bag containing the Rs 50,000 kept on his bike.  He alerted the bank staff and went in search of the accused, but his efforts went in vain. He later rushed to HSR Layout Police Station and filed a case.

Police found CCTV footage that showed that a man who was standing nearby diverted Mallikarjun’s attention while two other men came on a Pulsar bike and managed to escape with the money. The police are not ruling out the role of a staffer of the bank.

A special team has  been formed to nab the accused. Police also took a statement of an eyewitness Shekar V, a garment factory employee, who said that incidents of crime through such attention diversion tactics are a common occurrence around the locality.   

Mallikarjun had withdrawn the money to pay his labourers. Speaking to TNIE, he said, “When I raised an alarm, there were many people around me. They did not come to my help. Then I called the police control room and they insisted that I file a case at HSR Layout. The person who spoke to me was wearing a helmet. There are more than five CCTV cameras in the area.”