Bengaluru techie hatches accident drama to snatch ex-boyfriend’s mobile, lands in police net

BENGALURU: A 29-year-old techie's plan to snatch her ex-boyfriend's mobile phone, which contained private pictures of them, through a staged robbery has gone awry, with police arresting her and four men on dacoity charges.

Initially, cops thought it was a robbery case sparked by road rage. The miscreants had allegedly targeted the techie and her friend after ramming a car into their bike, and fled with their mobile phones. However, a deeper investigation revealed that the woman was the mastermind and had assigned four men to rob her male friend of his phone.

The accused are P Shruti, Manoj Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Honnappa, and Venkatesh, all residents of Kodathi and in their 30s. Shruti's friend, Dumpa Vamshi Krishna Reddy of Singasandra, had filed a complaint stating that miscreants had robbed him and Shruti of their mobile phones near the parking lot of a commercial store in Bhoganahalli around 8.30pm on Sept 20. "A Swift Dzire car rammed into our vehicle from behind, and when I questioned them, two men from the car snatched our mobile phones," Reddy stated in his complaint to Bellandur police.

The cops first discovered that no such accident had occurred at the said place. Instead, four men had blocked Reddy and Shruti, claiming they had hit their vehicle, and run away with the phones. Next, police traced the cab, and its driver told them the four men had booked it for four hours. Taking the details of the person who booked it, police arrived at the doorstep of Manoj, a painter. He allegedly confessed to having snatched the mobile with his associates and shocked the cops by saying Shruti had given him Rs 1.1 lakh for the task.

"We were surprised to hear Kumar's version of events. When questioned, Shruti confessed, saying she wanted Reddy's mobile as it contained their private pictures that she wanted to delete," an investigating officer said.

Couple had broken up

According to Shruti, Reddy and she wanted to marry, but their affair derailed over personal issues. "As Reddy distanced himself, Shruti felt insecure, thinking he would harm her in the future with their personal pictures. When asked, Reddy assured Shruti that he had deleted them all. However, Shruti suspected him as Reddy refused to hand over the mobile. So, Shruti hatched the robbery plot," the cop explained.

Shruti contacted Manoj, who had painted her house a few months ago, and asked him to grab the phones following a fight. She gave him Rs 1.1 lakh when Kumar told her he needed more men for the task. Accordingly, Shruti called Reddy to the decided place on the night of Sept 20. She then alerted Manoj and the drama was played out.

Phone thrown in lake

After snatching the mobile phones, the miscreants, as agreed before, handed them over to Shruti on the same night. Shruti's efforts to open Reddy's phone went in vain as it was locked. The following day, she threw it in Singasandra Lake, police said.|