Three villas robbed at Bengaluru’s Rainbow Drive Layout following floods

Three villas in Rainbow Drive Layout at Sarjapur area in Bengaluru, which had been vacant after their residents fled following the Bengaluru floods were robbed on Friday, September 9. The burglary was only found the next day on September 10, when the owners returned to their villas to check the flood situation. It is suspected that the same group of robbers was involved in all three burglaries. Three cases under IPC sections 380 (theft in a dwelling house) and 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) have been filed by Bellandur police. 

The owners and their families had shifted to hotels or their relative's houses, when incessant rains lashed the city of Bengaluru and flooded the Rainbow Drive Layout twice in a month. While two of the owners had visited their houses on the morning of September 9 to gauge the situation of flooding and cleaning their homes, it was only the next day they found that robbers had broken in and fled with gold and diamond jewellery.

While the police have not yet estimated the total value of stolen goods, the Times of India has reported that one of the residents had lost five pieces of diamond jewellery and 22 pieces of gold jewellery, while another resident lost 17 pieces of gold jewellery and two pieces of diamond jewellery. The robbers had broken in through the balcony of the third victim who lost gold, diamond, and silver jewellery from the residence.

The Rainbow Drive Layout has been flooded four times since August. Residents of Rainbow Drive layout had protested during the first week of August against the indifference of the local government. Residents are forced to navigate the stagnant flood waters from their homes to the main gate using tractors and boats whenever the Layout is under three feet of water. Residents of the Layout were using tractors, boats, and rafts for days after the city's rains stopped, while the Fire Department workers were regularly draining water out of the area.