One of my colleagues travelled from Chittoor to Bangalore in an interstate bus on the night of February 19. He reached Tin Factory, Bangalore, at around 1.30 a.m. As he was waiting for some city bus to arrive, he saw a cab (Bolero) approaching towards him shouting ‘Silk Board’. Since he had to go to Marathalli, which is en route to Silk Board, he happily took the cab.
Four or five people were sitting in the cab and my friend took a seat by the window. A while after the cab left Tin Factory, a man sitting next to my friend requested the window seat so that he could spit out of the window. My friend looked around and noticed that all the windows of the cab were covered with sunscreens. He sensed danger. Other people in the car started asking him about his job. My friend thought it would be better not to tell them that he worked for a multinational company as an IT professional. But soon, the men in the cab took out knives, covered my friend’s face with a piece of cloth and started beating him up. They drove the car to a deserted spot near Sarjapur and asked him to take out whatever we had on him. They took all his money, the gold ring and chain he was wearing and his mobile phone, among other things. Thankfully, they did not kill him.
My friend rushed to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint, but the policemen refused to help him and told him to visit the police station of the area where he had boarded the cab.
Since my friend was very scared and was bleeding because of the injuries he had sustained, he decided to visit the police station, he was referred to, the next day.
The next day, when he went to the police station near Tin Factory, the policemen refused to lodge his complaint. They asked him to go to a different police station. They told him that he should go to the police station of the area where the people had started beating him up.
My friend went to that police station too; which lay somewhere in the middle of the two police stations which my friend had already visited. But these policemen too refused to lodge the complaint. Worse, they misbehaved with my friend and called him a liar. My friend is still shaken because of the incident and very sad about the way policemen behaved with him.
Bengalurians, be careful! Never board any such car/cab/mini bus at night. Don’t expect the police to help you out after you are robbed or looted. The people who are supposed to take care of you won’t even register a complaint. I wish someone from the police department approaches him and helps him out so that our belief in the system remains.
I am sharing this on his behalf just to make others aware of such incidents. He is still traumatised, and I hope he recovers soon.
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