Robbers find no gold on youth, chop off his fingers
Road robbers struck in the Buddhist pilgrimage town of Gaya, chopping off four fingers of a youth after they discovered that he did not possess any precious metal.
The victim, Kapil Kumar, an assistant professor at the Shaheed Baliram Singh Yadav College in Gaya, 110km south of Patna, was to get married on June 3.
Kumar was returning home on his motorbike from Gaya to Bodh Gaya, after distributing his wedding invitation cards, when road robbers chased him on a motorbike and intercepted him near the Gaya airport.
They gagged Kumar with a piece of cloth and thrashed him, after dragging him into the bushes off the deserted road.
The victim told the police that the robbers were looking for gold bracelet, chain or ring.
“On not finding any precious metal on me, one of the robbers told his companion to kill me. Fortunately, good sense prevailed on them and they left me in the bushes writhing in pain,” the victim said.
The victim has lodged a case at the Bodh Gaya police station.
Gaya city superintendent of police Awakash Kumar did not respond to HT’s repeated phone calls or text messages on his cellphone.
However, Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Mallick told HT’s , “Though such an incident has been reported, I am not sure if it was a road hold-up. I’ll have to check with the police station concerned.Call me after 15 minutes.”
When HT’s called back, Mallick said, “I haven’t been able to verify it, as I am in a meeting. I’ll call you back as soon as I get a confirmation.”
The incident was reminiscent of Angulimala, an important character in Buddhism who would kill people for their little finger.
To keep a count of the number of his victims, he strung their little finger on a thread and wore them around his neck as a garland, earning him the sobriquet of Angulimala (‘garland [or necklace] of fingers”). Later, he turned a monk after his encounter with Lord Buddha.