Four men posing as police officers stormed into a private Kerala-bound tourist bus that had 43 passengers on board, pulled the driver from his seat, and ‘hijacked’ the vehicle late Fridaynight.
The bus was waylaid on Mysuru Road just as passengers were settling in for a trip to Kannur.
The prime accused who has hijacked the bus for loan recovery has been arrested and the accused has been identified as Chikkarangegowda 48 year old resident of Rajarajeshwari Nagar.
A private travel company bus with 43 passengers on board was hijacked by four men posing as Central Crime Branch police officers, allegedly to recover the money lent to the vehicle owner.
The men who were later arrested, claimed they were from the recovery team of a finance company which had lent money to the company to purchase the bus.
Since the owner of the bus was irregular in paying his equated monthly installments of his loan, they were left with no other choice than taking control of the vehicle, police said.
The bus was on the way to Kannur in Kerala Friday night when the motorcycle-borne youth stopped it on the Mysuru Road near R V Dental College the driver refused to stop so the bike borne chased the bus and in the pretext of inspecting the bus.The four men said they were from the CCB Bengaluru and then directed the bus driver to take it to a warehouse in Pattanagere, leaving the passengers in jitters.under the limits of Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station in Bengaluru.
Thanks to Police -Passengers.
Ms.Rani one of the passenger travelling in the bus told media persons firstly I thank the cops, and narrated the incident as the four culprits were arguing with driver we thought that it was fight over an accident later,they assaulted the driver and took the vehicle towards interior parts of the city.We realized that there was something wrong only when they went on a different route.They locked us in a godown and did not tell a thing we were frightened she added.
Another frightened passenger told media persons, that one of the Hijackers had a police cap on him.They told us that the bus owner had not paid the loan so they were seizing the vehicle.They told that they will arrange another bus.It seems that the owner owed Rs.4 lakh.They locked us in a godown we argued that they should have taken the bus and not us.We threatened them that we will complain to the police.Then they asked us to take another bus we refused but what they did was wrong if they had to recover the loan they should have seized the bus in the day time when it is parked how can they lock us in a godown he added .
DCP West,Ravi D Chennanevar told media persons that around 11:30 pm, One passenger contacted our police control room and the passenger has even shared the location of him where the bus was hijacked as soon as the information was passed to control room immediately more than 30 armed police personnel under the supervision of ACP Dr.Prakash rushed to the spot and surrounded the godown and sensing trouble the culprits escaped and our officers and staff rescued all the 43 passengers and after collecting the information from them the bus was left to Kannur by 3:30 am safely.While rescue operation one was nabbed instantaneously,three others on the run were caught after a massive hunt and “Our investigations are on.At this stage of investigation, there are four people involved in the crime Preliminary investigation reveals that this was a loan recovery case,but holding passengers captive is a grave crime.We will investigate and nab the culprits.The credit company is named as Fullerton credit company they claim that they have outsourced the recovery and seizing properties division we have got to know that there are people with criminal records in the seizing business we will initiate action against everyone with criminal backgrounds in this business and a special team headed by ACP Dr.Prakash and his team has arrested prime accused in the bus hijack case and the accused has been identified as Chikkarangegowda 48 year old resident of R R Nagar.A case has been registered against the four hijackers at the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Police Station.They have been booked under Section 365 (kidnapping), 341 (wrongful restraint); 342 (wrongful confinement); 504 (intentional insult); and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal code.Efforts are on to nab the accused who are on the run and finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner, T Suneel Kumar, Addl CP West, B K Singh,has appreciated, DCP West, Ravi D Chennanevar,ACP Kengerigate Sub Division,Dr.Prakash,PI,
