16 December,2009 10:00 AM IST | | Madhusudan Maney
Twenty-nine-year-old advocate and his friends arrested for highway robbery of Rs 20 lakh
They say greed can make devils out of noble men. This is what allegedly happened in the case of an advocate Gourish (29) of Annapoorneshwari Nagar.
Gourish was a practising lawyer till two years ago, when he decided to quit to start a real estate business.
The business flopped and the lack of money turned the hardworking Gourish into a robber.
However, as luck would have it, he was caught after his very first robbery attempt.
First strike
On November 13, Gourish and his friendsu00a0-- Ramesh (22), K Krishnamurthy (27) and Krishna (20) all from Sunkadakatteu00a0-- planned their first attack on Outer Ring Road near the Veerabhadra slum.
They came in a Tata Indica and a Qualis and hit the vehicle of H Srinivasa Murthy.
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Stick 'em up
When Murthy got down from the vehicle to see the damage, the gang came up to him and told him they will bear the expenses to repair the vehicle.
The next moment, one of them took out a pistol and threatened to kill Murthy unless he handed over his valuables.
They took his four gold rings, two chains, a bracelet, a Rado-make watch, a Nokia N-79 mobile phone, one HSBC credit card, Rs 30,000 and his Skoda. The total value came up to Rs 20 lakh.
Valuables recovered
DCP (West) B Shivakumar investigated the case and with his team, successfully caught the gang.
Byatarayanapura police inspector D S Rajendra said, "Gourish, who quit his legal profession and started real estate business two years ago, formed a gang for robberies, but was caught by the police. Valuables worth Rs 19 lakh were recovered from gang member Ramesh, but the revolver is yet to be recovered."
Meanwhile, Shivakumar said, "Till the identification parade is over, we are concealing the identities of the suspects and hence cannot circulate their photographs."
