This story is from December 9, 2019

Karnataka: To pay vehicle EMI, owner crashes truck & gets onions stolen

Two drivers claimed that 81 onion sacks worth Rs 9 lakh and weighing 4,700kg they were transporting to Chennai in a truck were carted away by onlookers minutes after the vehicle fell into a ditch in the wee hours of Friday. The duo and three of their accomplices have been arrested for stage-managing the accident and siphoning off the produce.
Karnataka: To pay vehicle EMI, owner crashes truck & gets onions stolen
Mahalakshmamma HN with the truck
BENGALURU: Two drivers claimed that 81 onion sacks worth Rs 9 lakh and weighing 4,700kg they were transporting to Chennai in a truck were carted away by onlookers minutes after the vehicle fell into a ditch in the wee hours of Friday. The duo and three of their accomplices have been arrested for stage-managing the accident and siphoning off the produce.
An alert woman sub-inspector of Tavarekere police in Tumakuru district smelt something fishy on Friday night when she found a truck in a roadside ditch near Yaragunteswara Nagar near Sira and was told by the crew that more than half of their onion load had been stolen.
The cop on night patrol remembered the truck was not there half an hour earlier when she passed by.
“Mahalakshmamma HN questioned the two drivers and they confessed to the crime. The duo told police they had unloaded 81 sacks of onions in Hiriyur, Chitradurga district, and shifted them to another vehicle to transport them to Yeshwanthpur market in Bengaluru,” a senior police officer said.
The drivers, Santosh Kumar R, 23, and Chetan M, 24, admitted to intentionally driving into the the roadside ditch. They were arrested along with onion trader Sheikh Ali, 60, and his sons Buden Sab, 35, and Dadapeer, 40. All the five are residents of Hiriyur.
Police said truck owner Chetan, 19, who is the main suspect, is on the run. A case was registered against the gang based on a complaint filed by Ananda Kumar, 35, a farmer from Huchavanahalli village in Davanagere district.
According to Anand, he and a few of his relatives had grown onions and decided to sell the produce in Chennai market. They hired a truck from BK Transport in Challakere for transportation.
“Drivers Chetan and Santosh picked up the load from my village and neighbouring Bidarekere village around 9.30pm on November 5. There were 173 sacks of onions weighing 10,270kg in the truck. Santosh called me around 3.17am on Friday to tell me the truck had toppled near Yaragunteshwara Nagar due to technical problems. I reached the spot by 4.20am,” Anand claimed.
He said in his complaint that he found several sacks missing from the truck. He asked Santosh and Chetan about the missing sacks and they told him the public might have taken them away.
Tavarekere police contacted the driver of the other truck transporting the stolen onions, who drove back and returned the produce to police. Cops took permission from the court and returned the perishable commodity to its cultivators on Saturday.
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