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Man stripped, robbed near Art of Living ashram

The ashram auth­o­rities are considering beefing up security arou­nd the AoL centre.

Bangalore: In the last nine months, one case of rape and two cases of armed robbery have been reported in and around the Art of Living ashram, giving the jurisdictional Thala­gattapura police sleepless nights.

In the latest incident on January 26, a 22-year-old engineering student fr­om Sidda­ganga Insti­tute of Technology, who went to the ashram to attend a sa­tsang, was allegedly stri­pped naked and rob­bed of his mobile phone and wa­tch by three unid­entified, ­bike-borne miscreants.

The victim, Jathin Ga­n­­g­­­a­tkar, is a resident of Rajarajeshwari Na­gar.

After driving down to the AoL ashram last Sunday, Jathin realised that he had left behind his mo­bile phone in his car, which was parked in front of the Ayurveda Pa­ncha­karma Centre on the campus.

He went ba­ck to collect it around 6.30 pm when three you­ths, aged betw­een 20 and 30 years, wielding wea­pons, accosted him. They were on a white Suzuki Acc­ess motorbike without number plates.

They threatened to ass­ault Jathin if he did not part with his valuables. They claimed to be the associates of notorious ro­wdy, Cycle Ravi.

Jathin was then taken to a secluded area on Pipeline Road, where he was forced to smoke cigarettes and then told to strip. When he refused, one of the miscreants allegedly hit him with the handle of a car jack. They then snatched Jathin’s car keys and searched his vehicle for cash and valuables.

Wh­en they could not find anything, the trio fled, not before warning him that they would kill him if he reported the incident to the police.

Jathin rushed to the ashram and filed a police complaint after consulting the ashram authorities. The Thal­agatt­ap­ura po­l­ice confirmed the incident to Deccan Chro­nicle. Even ashram auth­o­rities are considering beefing up security arou­nd the AoL centre.

“Unf­ortun­ately, we are short-staffed and are unable to keep a round-the-clock vigil. In most cases, it seems that the suspects stri­ke after the beat pol­ice finish their rou­nds,” said a senior police officer.

( Source : dc )
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