BENGALURU: A gang of five diverted the attention of an engineering student before escaping with his Toyota Fortuner SUV on late Friday night. However, after investigating, cops found the crime was orchestrated by the vehicle’s previous owner to take back their car, as the current owner had not paid him the entire amount for the car.   

Nishanth Balaji K, 21, a undergraduate student of Management Studies in Mahaveer Jain College, was driving the car along with his friend Vishnu after watching a late night movie at Orion Mall, at 12.30am on late Friday night.

On Dr Rajkumar Road in Rajajinagar, they were stopped by a gang of five men in a car who informed them that the car had a flat tyre. When they got out to check, two gang members got into the car and drove off. Nishanth and Vishnu tried stopping them but their efforts were in vain.

Nishanth, a resident of 8th Block Jayanagar, filed a complaint with Subramanyanagar police, who registered a case of dacoity. In his complaint, Nishanth said that he bought the SUV from a person named Uma in 2017. The car was not yet registered in his or his father Krishnamurthy’s name yet.

An investigating officer said that on Sunday they found that the earlier owner of the SUV had sold the car to Krishnamurthy for Rs 10 lakh , including an exchange of a car. “However, the previous owner claimed that only out of the Rs 10 lakh, only Rs 4 lakh had been paid. After approaching Krishnamurthy several times to complete the payment, the owner orchestrated the robbery to take the car back,” he added.

The police said that the gang members followed the SUV from 5.30pm on Friday, till the time they actually drove away with the car. Although the car has been traced back to the earlier owner, the police have registered a case of dacoity for the manner in which the vehicle was taken.