BPO cabbies play highwaymen

BPO cabbies play highwaymen
DH News Service, Bangalore:
A six-member gang of call centre cabbies was arrested for allegedly looting late-night passengers stranded at bus stops after offering them a lift.

The gang has confessed to have looted at least 30 passengers over as many days though only 14 of the victims approached the police.

According to police, all the arrested cabbies worked for the call centre of a global IT major and stalked Outer Ring Road and adjacent roads in K R Puram in search of potential victims during their spare time, especially the weekends.

“After 10:30 pm, the gang would offer lifts to desperate passengers waiting for transport near bus stops. On entering poorly-lit roads, the driver and his associates would threaten their passengers and forcibly snatch away their valuables. Job done, the accused used to push their victims out of the moving vehicle before vanishing into the dark,” the police said.

Credit cards
The gang was on a roll until it laid its hands on the credit cards of some of its victims. Gang member Babu entered into a deal with a petrol bunk employee to encash the cards. The accused began swiping the credit cards to fuel their vehicles at the bunk. And it was not too long before the police were snapping at the gang’s heels.

The K R Puram police soon zeroed in on the numbers of the vehicles and the BPO for which they were contracted.
“But the BPO company just refused to co-operate with us. They prevented us from entering the campus and questioning the suspects on the pretext that the company’s prestige was at stake,” a police officer told Deccan Herald.

The company wanted the police to act when the vehicles moved out of the campus. The company also insisted that the service provider be alerted. In the melee, the gang members got wind of the police being on their pursuit and fled the campus.

However, the police later tracked down Babu, who led them to his accomplices.

All the six accused hail from Mulbagal taluk, Kolar district: Gopal (22), Hosahalli; Chowdappa (22), Arehalli and Srinivas (22), Meghraj (21), Venu Kumar (22) and Babu (22) (all from Srinivasapura).

The police have recovered 11 mobile phones, three four-wheelers, Rs 10,000 cash and other valuables from the culprits.