Viral video of armed men not from Karnataka, but stay safe: Cops

BENGALURU: A video of gang of men armed with sticks, flashing a torch and approaching a car, has gone viral on social media over the last few days. Although the Bengaluru police say no such took place anywhere in Karnataka, they have cautioned motorists not to fall prey to such a modus operandi on isolated stretches on the highways. The 25-second video clip — captured probably on the dashboard camera — shows a group of men using a flashlight on an oncoming driver to force him to stop the car, seemingly with the intention of robbing the occupants.

The frightened driver, realising the intentions of the gang, starts backing up even as the gang starts hurling stones and objects at the vehicle. But the driver manages to escape the scene in his car. The footage made it to some local TV channels, which claimed that the incident had taken place on NICE Road on the city’s outskirts. However, the city police, who assessed the footage, have learnt that it is an old video footage and that the incident actually took place somewhere in Bihar.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Harish Pandey said, “We examined the video footage that went viral. No such incident occurred in or around the city. We also checked whether such an incident occurred in our division a few months ago, but we have found nothing. People need not panic as police patrolling has been intensified everywhere.” Another senior police officer said the video appears to have captured a new modus operandi of highway robbers.

He said though such robbers will not dare stop vehicles on busy highways, they may target occupants of vehicles moving through isolated highway stretches where the density of traffic is low. He said the police have identified such stretches and have even removed speed breakers to allow cars to pass through such stretches quickly and reduce the time available for robbers to target them. The video that went viral had showed the car negotiating a road hump and the gang targeting the driver just at that time.