BENGALURU: A 25-year-old techie from Chennai was abducted in a minivan, blindfolded, assaulted and robbed of Rs 45,000 - all in a span of eight hours - before being abandoned by a four-member gang in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Friday.

The victim , who works as a senior systems manager with a software company, was returning home after attending official work and a family event in Bengaluru.

He was to leave for Chennai in a bus operated by SRS Travels around 11.50pm on January 31. "My bus was scheduled to arrive at Bommasandra around 11.50pm but it didn't. As I kept waiting, a Maruti Omni van pulled over. I approached the van, but two men inside the vehicle pulled me into the van, and two other strangers waiting at the bus stop rushed in. They sped away immediately," he said.

Will nab abductors in 2 days, says DCP

What followed next was eight hours of horror and inexplicable trauma. As soon as the victim was dragged in, the miscreants began raining blows on him in the moving car. "One punched me with his fist, while the other hit me on my leg with an iron rod. They snatched my wallet and mobile phone. They pinned me down to the car's floor and then blindfolded me and made me immobile by wrapping a thick blanket around," the victim said.

When they asked him for the debit card PIN, the victim refused. After being threatened at knife-point, he shared the PIN. "I was taken to at least four ATM kiosks. They've withdrawn Rs 45,000 from my account using my debit card," he said.

Every time the victim tried to plead for his life, gang members assaulted him. The horrifying episode played out until 8.30am on Friday, when he was thrown out of the van to a deserted stretch near Chandapura. Though injured, the victim managed to get himself admitted to Narayana Multi-Specialty Hospital. The victim was working in Mysuru before shifting to his hometown in Chennai.

DCP (southeast) Boralingaiah said a hunt is on to arrest the gangsters. "We'll arrest them in a day or two. We have got crucial clues and have identified the accused," he added.

