Hindupur man held for buying ATM attack victim’s mobile phone

Hindupur: Investigators from Karnataka, probing the attack on a woman bank officer at an ATM kiosk in Bengalure, have picked up a man from Hindupur (Anantapur district to) to whom the assailant had allegedly sold the victim’s mobile phone handset.

The Bengalure police picked up the man on Wednesday night and were interrogating him, with regard to the assailant, after recovering the phone, a senior police official of Anantapur said on Thursday.

"He is not the real accused. The assailant had sold the mobile phone to him. Hence the police were questioning him," the official said. The Anantapur police, however, said it was not clear whether the man was taken to Bangalore or not.

The 38-year-old victim, a manager with the Corporation Bank, was brutally attacked on the head with a machete by the assailant shortly after she entered the ATM kiosk around 7 AM on Tuesday. The Bengalure police have formed squads to nab the assailant and are in touch with their counterparts in neighbouring States also to crack the case.

The assailant had followed her into the ATM, located at a busy traffic intersection, closed the shutter and initially threatened the woman with a revolver asking her not to raise an alarm, as CCTV footage of the gruesome act showed.

He had walked out after taking away her mobile, leaving the bleeding woman in a serious condition.