Bengaluru police have arrested a couple in connection with the tomato robbery case reported in RMC Yard police station in Bengaluru and launched a hunt for the three other accused, police said on Saturday, July 22. The incident took place in the limits of RMC Yard police station in Bengaluru near Chikkajala. The farmer was transporting tomatoes from Hiriyur town in Chitradurga district to Kolar market.
According to police, the arrested couple has been identified as Bhaskar and his wife Sindhuja. The search is on for Rocky, Kumar and Mahesh. A case has been registered against the culprits under sections 346A (kidnapping, abduction or keeping a person in detention), 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The incident took place on July 8. The miscreants had made away with the vehicle transporting 2,000 kilograms of tomatoes worth around Rs 2.5 lakh after threatening a farmer in Bengaluru.
After noticing the tomatoes, the gang of miscreants followed the vehicle. They waylaid the vehicle and assaulted the farmer and driver of a Bolero goods vehicle alleging that their vehicle had been hit. They demanded money from them and later got it transferred to their mobile online. They boarded the goods vehicle along with the farmer. Later, the miscreants forcefully pushed the farmer out and took the vehicle carrying tomatoes towards Tamil Nadu.
RMC Yard police collected the CCTV footage and gathered clues about the accused couple. After selling the tomatoes, they parked the vehicle near Peenya and Bengaluru and escaped in another vehicle which did not have a registration number plate.
This is not the first time tomatoes were stolen owing to their price rise. On July 6, a woman from Karnataka’s Halebeedu alleged that tomatoes worth Rs 2.5 lakh were stolen from her farm. Hindustan Times reported that the woman said that the thieves had stolen at least 60 kgs of tomatoes and they will incur a huge loss since they had taken loans to grow and harvest the crop.