Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Apr 4: The Uppinangady police have cracked the case relating to reported robbery of cash and other items after attacking a lorry driver and tying him up at Golithottu near Uppinandady in the early hours of March 26. They found that the lorry driver had acted out this drama. Besides arresting him, items he had swindled were recovered.

The driver in question, identified as Ambarreesh S R (35), son of Rame Gowda from Pandavapura taluk in Mandya district was transporting soap, shampoo, tea, coffee etc belonging to Hindustan Unilever Company from Chikkaballapur to Mangaluru. After having food at Marnahalli near Sakleshpur at around 6.30 pm on March 25, he was driving towards Puttur. He had claimed that two persons seated in a Tata Indica car without registration number overtook him, assaulted him, tied him up and robbed items belonging to him and the company. He had said that Rs 5,200 he had in his trousers and a cellphone worth Rs 2,000 and some boxes belonging to Hindustan Lever were robbed by the two-member gang.

The police, who considered this as a highway robbery case, formed a special investigation team led by probationary assistant superintendent of police, Pradeep Gunti, Upppinangady police sub-inspector, Nandakumar, probationary sub-inspector, Pavan Kumar, and Puttur rural circle inspector, D Manjunath. During the questioning, the police found many loopholes in the statements made by Ambareesh. When they persisted with detailed questioning, the driver agreed that he had acted out the robbery drama.

The items Ambareesh had stolen from the lorry and sold to others were recovered from Channapatna. Value of goods involved was Rs 58,867. Rs 51,500 he had received as purchase consideration of the goods was also recovered from him.