Karnataka: College girls resort to robbery to repay loan, get arrested in the process

A final-year BCom girl student and one of her classmates were arrested by the Karnataka police on June 2, Thursday, for attempting to rob a 65-year-old woman. The incident took place five days ago, on Saturday, May 28, between 10:15 and 10:30 am, when the victim KT Gayathri, who stays in BHEL Officers Colony, Bangalore, was returning home from her walk. The area falls under the limits of the Nandini Layout police station.

The accused attempted to snatch a gold chain from the victim, in order to repay a loan of Rs 5,000. The girl and her friend had invested Rs 15,000 on an online trading app, which made profits initially but later, suffered losses.

The girls had got a Rs 15,000 from an instant loan app for the investment. They had returned Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 was remaining to be returned. The loan app was pressuring them to repay this amount, for which the girls decided to resort to crime, the police informed, and IANS reported on June 3.

“When the victim was walking past them, the girl from among the two accused, came from behind and threw chilli powder into the elderly woman's eyes. The accused then tried to snatch her gold chain. The victim, however, managed to hold on to her gold chain and screamed for help. When a biker came to her rescue, the accused ran to her male accomplice and escaped along with him on a scooter,” said a police officer, as reported by ENS.

The IANS report has additionally informed that the accused had been disguised as an NGO member and approached the victim on the pretext of handing over a pamphlet. The woman had noticed the two standing next to a scooter and this information helped the police in tracking down the culprits by the scooter's registration number, as seen on the CCTV footage of the area.

A case of attempt to commit robbery under Section 393 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against both of them and they have been remanded to judicial custody. However, the police has also revealed that the students had secured good marks in exams and were good at academics. The woman sympathised with the students and decided to complete legal procedures to let the students off the hook, as stated in the IANS report.