One of our colleague Mr.R.Seetharaman at RBI
Chennai was robbed day before yesterday. The incident is described in the
subsequent lines. You are requested to spread a word about this to your friends
and other colleagues. It might save someone.
Our friend was walking towards Parry’s corner
through RBI Subway and suddenly he heard a screeching sound behind him. As
he turned around he found two young bikers fallen on the road, trying to pick
their bike up. These youth immediately turned aggressive and started shouting at
him and started blaming him for their accidental fall. They accused our friend
of jaywalking which resulted in this accident and their getting injured. Our
Friend tried to defend himself saying that he has not done anything wrong
rather it is the bikers fault. Finally, the bikers told him that he is of their
fathers age and they don’t want anything from him only he should get them
vaccinated with Tetanus injections. Rather they told that they don’t need money
from our friend for these injections, our Friend should just come along with
the youths and get these vaccines injected and pay the doctor himself.
Our Friend proposed to take them to Apollo
hospital but the youth countered saying why waste time unnecessary and that they
knew a doctor near the corner who will do the same. Then they requested our
friend to sit with him on the bike. Our Friend complied and he was made to sit
in between.
The moment these guys started the bike. Two
more bikes with two ruffian looking youth came on each side of the bike. The
youth sitting behind our friend told him that these guys are thieves and he has
a knife pointing on his back , if he will make even a little bit of noise they
will stab him. They further told him that they intend not doing any harm to him
and just want some money and asked our friend to hand over his wallet. They
further took our Friend to an isolated ATM without a guard and asked him to
withdraw money and give it to them. None of these six ruffians entered the ATM so
that their pictures cannot be taken by the ATM camera. Finally when our
colleague handed over the money these guys fled away.
A similar incident happened two days back at
a Bangalore ATM where a middle aged lady was robbed and assaulted inside an
ATM.
You may note and also advice all your
near and dear ones
a) Not to carry
ATM cards in their person when not required.
b) Carry
ATMs cards only when they intend to withdraw money from ATM. Further use
ATMs which are inside official premises like Bank or other safe locations where
Guards are normally present. Withdraw money during peak hours when people are
around.
c) Use
net-banking as much as possible. Keep one main account and other subsidiary
account from which to withdraw cash. Transfer money from Main account to
subsidiary account as and when required.
d) Ladies can
wear bare minimum jewellery while coming to office and go in groups after
office hours or raise an alarm if suspicious people approach them
e) Generally to
avoid walking alone after sunset in sub-ways and lonely/dark patches.
- Venugopal M.K / Chandraiah B
I contacted Mr.Seetharaman of Chennai
office. He said that he was completely cornered by the gang of goondas,
who took him to one of the side streets in Broadway. Initially, it happened not
at Subway near Chennai office but near Broadway Bus Stand atound 6.30 PM.
Although there were only two goondas intially, they were joined by a gang and
in all 6 to 8 people were there, who threatened him and forced him to withdraw
money from ATM and decamped with the booty. Seetharaman was saying he was
simply taken aback and got so much scared that he did not know how much money
he withdrew from the ATM. I think ATM for withdrawals, there is a limit. So
they made to him withdraw repeatedly, Seetharaman mentioned that he came to
know only from the printout from the ATM later on that in all a total sum of
Rs.80,000 was withdrawn. Perhaps, they must have been monitoring Seetharaman's
earlier visits to the ATM and a lot of planning has gone into this episode.
When I asked him as to why he did not lodge
complaint with the Police Authorities, Seetharaman said that he was so scared
of their threat not to go to Police. He also did not note the numbers of the
bikes. When I asked as to why there was no public on the road, he said that by
6.30 PM, the office rush was over and there were only few people waling along
and only vehicles were moving. Moreover the gang took Seetharaman to a secluded
place in one of the side streets without much public movement. Seetharaman still
seemed so scared about the threat and he thanked God that he was not subjected
to any physical harm. This happened on Tuesday last evening, On that same day,
the Bangalore ATM attach took place.
The episode looks very much movie type. I
wish Amma's government takes deterrent action against such waylaid robbery.
Seetharaman's mobile number is 9444327774. He added that the gang took away his
mobile also. Later Seetharaman took duplicate SIM card by deactivating the old
one.
- S. Srinivasan, Cochin
RBI subway had been a place of insecurity even earlier when
there were no ATMs.Many ladies have lost their chains and bangles.A
thief who missed a green necklace threatened a lady to wear the necklace
on some other day and relieved of her of the jewel.For fear of life,
that lady also handed over the necklace to him. Not only RBI subway, all
the subways come under the same
category.For fear of thieves passengers cross railway lines and get involved in accidents.
- Vathsala Jayaraman
