A Bengaluru man with old criminal records was murdered on July 19 in a bank by a gang of masked men panicking the staff and customers. The deceased, identified as Joseph alias Babli, a 42-year-old resident of Adugodi, had gone to the Union Bank with his wife and daughter in the city’s Koramangala Block 8 between 1.15 pm – 1.30 pm when the incident happened, the police told reporters.
A police official told IANS that a gang of seven to eight men had followed him on their bikes and attacked him with sharp lethal weapons, machetes and swords. The bank officials alerted the police immediately but Joseph had succumbed to his injuries on the spot, the official added.
Joseph was a rowdy sheeter and has a criminal record with Adugodi police. He was accused of murder, attempt to murder and other crimes; however, he had later reformed, reports say. An official was quoted in Bangalore Mirror stating that Joseph, since 2011, was into small civil contract business. The police personnel added that some of his rivals from the past still nurtured grudges against him though.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, Joseph aka Babli’s wife was also hurt and has lost two of her fingers as she tried to intervene to stop the assassins from attacking her husband. The report added that Joseph and his brother-in-law, George, who is also a rowdy sheeter, were not on good terms. The two were rivals back in the day and the police suspect that George may be behind the murder.
S Murugan, Additional Commissioner of Police, East, had come to the spot and told the reporters that police were collecting evidence. The criminals will be arrested soon, he assured. "We have formed special teams to nab the assailants at the earliest," he told IANS, adding that police are analysing the CCTV footage installed in the bank and surrounding buildings. Along with him, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southeast, Srinath Mahadev Joshi also went to the spot. A team of Forensic Science Laboratory officials and a dog squad was also present to collect evidence.
(With IANS inputs)