B'lore ATM attack: Man held for questioning in AP

Investigators from Karnataka, probing the attack on a woman bank officer at an ATM kiosk in Bangalore, have picked up a man from Hindupur town in Andhra Pradesh's Anantpur district to whom the assailant had allegedly sold a mobile phone handset of the victim.

The Bangalore police picked up the man from Hindupur last night and were further interrogating him with regard to the assailant, after they recovered the mobile phone from him, according to a senior police official in Anantpur.

"He (man picked up by Bangalore police) is not the real accused. The assailant had sold the mobile phone to him belonging to the victim and hence the police were further questioning him," the official said.

The Anantpur police, however, said it was not clear whether the man was taken to Bangalore or not.

The 38-year-old victim, a manager with the Corporation Bank, was brutally attacked on the head with a machete by the assailant shortly after she entered the ATM kiosk around 7 AM on Tuesday.

Bangalore police have formed squads to nab the assailant and are in touch with their counterparts in neighbouring states also to crack the case.

The assailant had followed her into the ATM, located in a busy traffic intersection and closed the rolling shutter and initially threatened the woman with a revolver asking her not to raise an alarm, as CCTV footage of the gruesome act showed.

He had walked out of the kiosk after downing the shutter and taking away her mobile, leaving the bleeding woman in a serious condition.