With the city expanding rapidly and the police force hemmed by a shortage of manpower to police the city effectively, criminal elements in Bengaluru seem to be getting bolder by the day. And none other than a police head constable got a taste of this when he was threatened at gunpoint recently while manning a traffic junction. A team of policemen, headed by the Madiwala ACP, is now on the lookout for the two accused.
Police head constable Anand Kumar, attached to Adugodi traffic police station, was threatened at gunpoint while manning a junction in Koramangala III Block, last Monday evening when he was posted on duty between 2 pm and 10 pm. Just 30 minutes before his shift ended, an autorickshaw driver came running towards Anand and told him that some unidentified person was threatening him at gunpoint asking him to take the auto in the directions he suggested. After hearing out the auto driver, Anand rushed near the vehicle which was parked near the water tank junction. On seeing a policeman in uniform coming towards them, one of the two people who were in the auto, escaped after crossing the road. However, Anand held on to the other person in the passenger seat, according to an officer who is part of the team investigating the case.
Since the battery of his walkie-talkie had died, Anand informed the police control room from his mobile phone asking them to send a Hoysala patrol squad to the junction to hand over the person he had nabbed over to the jurisdictional police station. Sensing danger to his associate, the accused who had initially escaped, returned and threatened Anand at gunpoint to free his associate or that he would be shot dead. The duo then managed to escape towards Madiwala market. In the melee, the autorickshaw driver drove away and the head constable was unable to note down its registration number, the officer said.
While looking for the accused in the vicinity, the team of policemen in plainclothes, by a stroke of luck, was tipped off about the Adugodi rowdy-sheeter George, who was shot in the leg in a police firing on Thursday evening near the Koramangala BDA complex. “We initially suspected that George was the one who had threatened the head constable and we are still probing that angle”, the officer added. Madiwala sub-division Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Subbanna said the search for the accused duo who threatened the head constable is still on. However, he did not confirm if George was among those who had threatened the policeman.