Bengaluru: Two men posing as prospective tenants allegedly assaulted a 59-year-old woman and fled with her 40-gram gold mangalya chain in east Bengaluru recently.According to a complaint filed by Yashoda, a resident of Konadasapura who runs a small shop in front of Safal Market, she was approached by an acquaintance named Bharath about two weeks ago. Bharath’s parents used to run a roadside eatery on Yashoda’s property and had returned to their native Chintamani. Bharath claimed that he was studying nina college nearby.Yashoda told TOI, “Bharath told me that two of his friends were looking for a house on rent and they would visit her the following morning to see the property.”However, no one turned up the next day. A man visited her shop, introducing himself as Bharath’s friend, and enquired about the rent and advance before leaving.Around 8pm on Aug 5, two men arrived at her house, claiming to be Bharath’s friends, and asked her to show them the house she intended to rent out. Trusting them, Yashoda showed them her the vacant house adjacent to her residence. “The duo complained of cracks in the wall and told me that one of them was bringing his pregnant wife and wanted to fix it,” the complainant said.“They took some tools from my house, including a hammer, and started hitting the wall. I objected to it and asked them only to clean the house and that they could fix the cracks with paint after shifting. Within two minutes, they came to my house while I was cooking. One of them put his hand on my shoulder as if he were a friend. When I retorted, they tried to grab my mangalya chain. I held on to it and tried to escape. But they assaulted me and robbed me of the chain. When they were fleeing, I tried to stop them, but they overpowered me and fled on a bike they had parked nearby,” Yashoda said.Yashoda told Avalahalli police that she remembered Bharath having said his sister had been married to a nearby villager.A senior officer said, “We have secured the trio and subjected them to questioning and are making efforts to recover the gold chain. Bharath is the mastermind behind the crime, and the miscreants had followed her for almost two weeks to rob her of valuables.”
