In East Bengaluru, four teenagers—three Class IX students and a first-year PU student—turned to crime to fund their drug and cigarette habits. For over a year, the group targeted lone pedestrians in pre-dawn robberies near bus stops and deserted streets.
Their run ended on July 3 when they robbed a woman near Garden City College. Riding a stolen scooter, two of them snatched her handbag and phone. Unbeknownst to them, the bag contained 470 grams of gold ornaments the woman, who had travelled from Andhra Pradesh, planned to pledge for her daughter’s loan.
After regrouping at a cemetery—where they routinely split stolen items—the boys buried the jewellery out of fear but kept the phone. They managed to unlock the victim’s UPI app using the password “123456” and used it to buy tea, cigarettes, and snacks nearby.
The woman filed a complaint at KR Puram police station the same morning. Inspector Ramamurthy B’s team reviewed footage from over 30 CCTV cameras, eventually tracing the suspects to the hotel where they made purchases. Hotel staff identified the PU student as a regular visitor, leading police to arrest all four by evening.
The buried gold and stolen phone were recovered. Investigators revealed the boys often smoked ganja before prowling for victims between 2am and 4am. Coming from low-income families, they lacked parental supervision and drifted into crime.
The juveniles were presented before the Juvenile Justice Board as police probe additional offences and the origins of the stolen scooter.