'Sprayed powder to distract victim': ‘Khujli’ gang targets jeweller in Bengaluru; decamps with gold worth Rs 36 lakh

BENGALURU: The ‘khujli' gang (or ‘itching powder gang') is on the prowl, yet again.Specialising in distracting its targets by spraying some itchy powdery substance on them before committing thefts, the gang has resurfaced in the city after nearly three years – its latest victim being a 62-year-old jeweller, who lost 385 grams of gold worth Rs 36 lakh. On Tuesday, Santhosh Kumar, owner of Marudhar Jewellers on Appaji Rao Lane in Nagarathpet, shut his shop around 9.30 pm and was returning home on his scooter with some gold ornaments in the two-wheeler's storage box. The ornaments were meant to be delivered to a shop in Maddur the next morning. Barely a few metres into the ride, Kumar felt itchy behind the neck and stopped his two-wheeler by the roadside near the busy KR Market area. As he was dusting the powder off, two men on a scooter approached him, asking what had happened. As Kumar tried to explain his discomfort, one of the strangers fetched a water bottle from their scooter and told Kumar to come aside in an apparent bid to wash off the powder. Soon after, the duo left. When Kumar returned to his scooter, he found his tiffin box missing. Suspecting that something was amiss, he opened the scooter's storage box and was shocked to see the gold ornaments gone. Kumar immediately called his son and told him about the incident. He then contacted City Market police and filed a complaint. A senior police officer supervising the investigation said Kumar had left the key in the scooter while he was taken aside by one of the miscreants, leading to the theft.