Kundapur: Businessman Tricked of Rs 9.5 Lac by Diverting Attention
With inputs from Vinay Pais
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (mb)
Kundapur, Dec 21: A businessman here was looted to the tune of Rs 9.5 lac by a stranger by diverting his attention in the open around noon on Thursday.
Raghavendra Kini, owner of Radhika Rice Mill in Halady-Belve near here, had just drawn cash from Canara Bank on main road here for making payments at his office. As he was getting into his car, a stranger suddenly appeared in front of him and told him that he had dropped some money on the ground, while, in fact, the man himself had laid a trap by scattering a few ten and hundred-rupee notes of his own.
Thus his attention was diverted and the bag containing the cash drawn from the bank was snatched away by the stranger, who vanished from the spot immediately.
Kini is said to have got into such a state of shock as soon as the theft of such a large sum took place, that he could not even raise an alarm to alert the passers-by.
Kini, according to sources, always used to park his car in front of the bank. But because of the road repairs in progress, he happened to park it about 50 metres away. This was taken advantage of and it was certain that someone was closely watching his movements.
A complaint was registered with the police the soon after. The police saw a clear resemblance to a few cases that took place in Mangalore and around in not-so-distant past. The professional way in which it was done has led the police to suspect that the culprit could be a member of an organized gang camping in town.
It may be recalled that a day earlier a similar incident had taken place on the busy M G Road in Mangalore in which a man had lost Rs 48,000 in an attention-diversion trick.
The police made an intesive search all over the town, including bylanes of the entire municipal area, but there was no success. They have warned the public against recurrence of similar cases and advised them to be always watchful.
Udupi SP Labu Ram and dySP Shashidhar have visited the spot.
Happening over and over: