Accused in Bilikere petrol bunk dacoity arrested

All five persons involved in the shocking dacoity that took place in a petrol bunk on Gaddige Road in Bilikere on the outskirts of Mysuru on February 12 have been arrested.

Addressing a press conference in Mysuru on Monday, Superintendent of Mysuru district police Mallikarjun Baladandi said the accused had come in a car, threatened the two employees of the petrol bunk with a knife before extorting ₹15,300 and subsequently, fleeing the spot.

The police arrested the main accused, identified as Lakshman from Mandya, on March 6. During his interrogation, it was revealed that the other accused were Kiran from Hassan, Umesh from Hunsur and Rakshit and Jayant from Channapatna.

Though the five accused hailed from different districts, they met at the Mandya jail, where they had been lodged in connection with different cases, including robbery and murder. The five of them hatched the dacoity plan when they were in jail and executed it after being released.

While the Mysuru district police had arrested three of them, two others had been arrested in connection with a robbery case registered by Harohalli police in Bengaluru South district, in which they had extorted money from a taxi driver after booking a ride on a ride-hailing app.

During the last two months, Mr. Baladandi said the Mysuru district police had solved one dacoity case, two robbery cases, seven house thefts, five vehicle thefts and other other thefts, besides one cattle theft case.

Stolen items worth a total of ₹29.97 lakh have been recovered, he said.

Gold jewellery case

With regard to the loot of gold jewellery estimated to be around 8 kg from a jewellery shop in Hunsur on December 28, 2025, Mr. Baladandi said the police had arrested four of the eleven accused so far, but were continuing their search for the remaining seven as well as the looted gold jewellery.

One out of the five persons who executed the dacoity, too, was among the four arrested so far. The five-member team, after robbing the jewellery store, had split into two teams. While two of them in one team took the jewellery with them, the remaining three had taken a different escape route. “We have managed to arrest one of the three-member team”, said Mr. Baladandi.

He said the accused were part of an inter-State gang, which had gone around places like Periyapatna, Hunsur, Channarayapatna, Holenarsipura and Saligrama, before identifying shops in Periyapatna and Hunsur for the dacoity. “They were unable to strike at Periyapatna as there was a lot of movement of people due to the Hanuman Jayanthi festival. So, they struck at Hunsur,” he said.

When asked whether the accused had evaded arrest by not using mobile phones, Mr. Baladandi said the accused had used mobile phones, but they were not making regular calls. The accused had remained unidentified as they were making calls only through VPN and free WiFi.

Locating the looted gold jewellery had become a challenge for the police, even though various teams were working on it and touring different parts of the State in pursuit of the accused, he said.