BENGALURU: Mor than three years after a woman bank employee was brutally attacked by a machete-wielding man inside an ATM kiosk in Bengaluru, finally police have arrested a man suspected to be the attacker on Saturday.
"One Madhukar Reddy arrested by Chittoor Police has indicated his involvement in ATM case. Our team has been dispatched to interrogate," Praveen Sood, city police commissioner, tweeted.
Revealing details of the arrest at a press conference in Chittoor on Saturday, Superintendent of Police G Srinivas said, Reddy had escaped the A.P. police dragnet in November 2013 after committing a murder there. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 2011. We suspect that he arrived in Bengaluru on November 18 and spent the day in Cubbon Park with no money in hand. The next morning, he ventured out looking to get his hands on cash. He zeroed in on Jyothi Uday, who had gone to the ATM in the morning to withdraw money to buy a gift on her daughter’s birthday.
During interrogation on Saturday, police realised they had on their hands a dangerous man with a record of violent crimes. Police suspect Reddy has committed at least five murders. According to police, he had travelled across south India and confessed to have committed five murders and one attempt to murder (the attack in ATM).”
Reddy was picked up under suspicious circumstances and during the interrogation; police was suspicious that he was the ATM attacker. The interrogation following verification led to the man confessing the attack in Bengaluru.
However senior police officers said that only after forensic test can police confirm the identity of the attacker. Police have said the fingerprints recovered from the ATM, where she was attacked will be compared with the fingerprints of the man to confirm the identity of the man in custody.
The ATM attack in Bengaluru happened on November 19, 2013, when the victim Jyothi Uday, a Corporation Bank employee, was attacked early morning inside the bank ATM at NR Square, Corporation Circle. It was said that Jyothi entered an ATM to withdraw money, when a man pulled down the shutter, and attacked her with a machete. She spent many months in hospital.
Photo credit: The Hindu