Almost murdered and robbed 50m short of bhimeshwary jungle lodges

Hi everyone

Just wanted to notify all of you to be careful about lonely paths within any city, cross country and country / jungle limits. We got mugged and knifed 50m short of bhimeshwary jungle lodges on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 at 7:30 pm. My husband Chandan was attacked with a knife and was badly hurt on his nose and upper lip. The assailant also tried to knife his neck. You can find the details below.

Care we will take traveling in future:

1. travel in groups
2. reach all destinations much before sunset.

3. do not lower windows more than 1 inch

4. lock your car doors always

5. do not go to any jungle property without prior confirmed reservation.

6. Carry a pepper spray for safety.

7. In case of any incident, make sure you register an FIR. The police will try to discourage you by saying that you have to come to court compulsorily, many times. This is not true. It is never mandatory for the victim to come to the court. The court call comes only after 3-4 years. If the police is good, they act on the report and make sure safety is ensured going forward. The police can ask you to identify the assailant by sending a picture as well.

Action taken from our side
1. The local police station discouraged us from filing the report. We later filed it with the DGP of Karnataka, at Bangalore on 16 Jul 2012.
2. We have informed Jungle Lodges, IFS and the Regional Forest Officer about this.
3. We have posted this all over social media
3. We have informed times of india and hindu

Action we requested from the authorities
1. Patrol the area near Jungle Loges on Fri, Sat and Sun
2. Put this information on the Jungle Lodges website that people should not come without prior confirmed booking and they should come before 5:30 pm.
3. Put information on how to be safe while driving.
4. Put better directions so that visitors do not need to ask a lot for directions.
5. In case someone comes to the lodge and does not get accommodation, they should be allowed to park the car inside the premises.

If you have access to press or television, please let me know. People need to know about such things. Please forward it to people you care about for their safety.

Tanu
PS: we are fine now

Copy of report filed

Details of the incident

 

7:20 PM	2km after muttati towards bhimeshwary jungle lodge	3 men	two men trying to push their bike uphill a small slope asked us for a lift. They were on the left of the car. We slowed down. On the right was a big muscular guy who tried to come close to the car. Chandan was suspicious and rode away.
7:30 PM	Bhimeshwary Jungle Lodges Gate	2 gate keepers	The 2 gate keepers refused entry to Chandan and Tanu since there were no rooms available. They suggested we go to the nearby Forest Guest house
7:32 PM	50m right of Jungle Lodges, a kachcha road that leads to the river cauvery, but is blocked by barricades	3 locals on a bike	We ask the bikers for directions to the Forest Guest house. One of the biker puts his hand inside the car through the lowered window and tries to take away the key. Chandan who is in the driver's seat, struggles with the key, the man takes a knife out and assults chandan on the nose, face and neck. Chandan gives up the key and opens the door. Another man opens the door from the other end and grabs Tanu. Chandan pulls Tanu out from the driver's door. The assilant punches chandan on the left eye. He and Tanu fall on the ground. The three attackers try to run away with the car as they have the key. Chandan and Tanu run towards the jungle lodge gate
7:34 PM	20 m right of Jungle lodges Gate, on the main road	Auto driver and local auto passengers. Around 10 people	Chandan and Tanu raise an alram and the auto passengers come to help. The attackers run away. The auto passengers help take out the wheel of the car and deflate another tyre so that if the attackers return to steal the car, they can't. Tanu takes the car tyre nuts and bolts with her and the jack. One of the passengers and the auto driver pull Tanu's hands and insists that we go with them to the nearby town. They put the tyres and the car belongings in the auto. We tell them that we prefer to go to the lodge but they don't want to come with us to the lodge. We run away with out our belongings to the lodge.
8:00 PM	Jungle Lodge gate	2 gate keepers	Chandan and Tanu climbed the gate fearing they will not be allowed into the lodge. We thre our belongings inside and while climbing, the guards opened the gate and allowed us in. Around 10-15 lodge staff members came. Some of them went to the crime scene. In 5 mins they came back riding a bike.
	Jungle Lodge gate	Auto driver and local auto passenger (narayan prajapath, 9945817346) give their card.	The auto driver and the passengers came to the jungle lodge gate and returned the car tyres. We are surprised why they did not do so earlier and why they were insistant to take us else where. The auto driver and the passenger who were insisting to go with them, gave us their card and insisted on them being truthful. They also asked Tanu to tie a rakhi.
	crime scene	Recovered attacker bike (KA 51 J 1156), knife and car key	They claimed that the bike was lying near the barricade and that it could be started with any random bike key. They claimed to have found the car key near the bike. The bike pocket had a knife. They took the car tyres, nuts and bolts and the jack, fixed the car and brought it back.
	Jungle Lodge gate	chandan can identify one of the assilants	the staff asked us if anyone was following us. Chandan then rememberd that the attacker was the same man who had asked for the lift earlier. Chandan can identify the attacker.
10:00 PM	Jungle Lodge office	Manager Vasanth 09634111759	While we were asking for the manager since 8pm, we get to see him only after 1.5 hours. The manager, Vasanth almost 5 times if we were married and if we were sure that we were married. He asked us if we had a proof of our marriage. We told him that we were married indeed but did not have a proof then and there. Tanu also told him that an IFS officer at Bangalore is her friend. Vasanth, took us to the office, called up the sub-inspector Dhanraj, chandan spoke to him.
		Gajendra Singh IFS	Tanu called up her friend Gajendra singh, IFS. Gajendra spoke to Vasanth. Vasanth allowed us to park our car inside, offered us dinner and let us spend the night in the car.
10:30 PM	Lungle logdes staff quarters	sub inspector, shanakraiah, 08231 295322	sub inspector shankaraiah came. He did not know english or hindi. The jungle lodges staff helped him translate and gave him our details in a piece of paper. He asked us to lodge a compain if we want. He asked us if we would like to compalin that night or in the morning. We said we would do so in the morning. The staff who was writing our details, gave him the alleged crime knife. The handed over knife was a kitchen knife, not a country knife. However the knife seemed to be different than what we had seen in the bike's pocket. We are not even sure if the bike was indeed of the attackers.
Sunday, 15 Jul, 9:30:00 AM	jungle lodge	Forest Guard from the Karnataka Forest Service,	The forest guard came to visit us, took us to his office in muttati and left us at the police station at halagur. He was the only one who was genuinely concerned and shocked. He patrols the area from time to time.
12:00 PM	halagur police station	Shankaraiah	We wrote the police complain but the police discouraged us from filing the complaint telling us that we will compulsorily have to face the court summons week after week. We decided not to complain as we do not have the time to go to the court. Also we are moving to chennai in a month.

Mon, 16 Jul, 1:30 pm	DGM, Kanataka's office	DGM	Chandan and Tanu, meet the DGM and give him a written complaint. they explain the situation and also mention that the sub inspector at Halagur discouraged them to file a report
Tue, 17 Jul, 2:30 pm	ACP's office	Srikiran, ACP's PA	Tells Tanu that the case had come to them from the DGM's office on 17 Jul and will be forwarded to the Grievance and human rights department  -Narasimha Murthy