Bengaluru: Cop’s wife attacks SBI branch with machete

BENGALURU: Around 6pm on June 22, staffers at State Bank of India (SBI) in Devanahalli were preparing to down the shutters when they had the shock of their life: A woman, wielding a machete, entered the compound and began abusing bank officials loudly for seizing her house as she had defaulted on the home loan.
Realising the danger, the staff closed the main door but that did not stop Sunita BC, 40, a homemaker and wife of an assistant sub-inspector, from smashing the glass panes of the ATM kiosk outside the bank and its windows.Sunita also broke the windshield of a car parked outside. It belonged to an SBI staffer.
By then, a team of cops with women personnel from Devanahalli police station reached the spot. But Sunita chose to attack them too. A woman sub-inspector, Savitri, dared to combat Sunita and despite receiving cut injuries on her neck, managed to overpower the accused and arrest her.
Facing different sections of IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder) and 353 (obstructing government official from duty), Sunita has been sent to judicial custody at Central Prison (Parappana Agrahara). Police sources said 307 has been invoked as the injury to Savitri could have been fatal.
This is the second time that Sunita is being arrested for attacking bank staff. In July 2021, she had barged into the bank with a kitchen knife and issued dire threats to the manager and others for issuing notices to her for failing to pay instalments towards the loan. Sunita’s husband Ravindra is assistant sub-inspector with Devanahalli police station, where the case has been booked.
According to the complaint filed by bank staffer Prashant Kumar Mahanti, they had court directions to take over the physical ownership of the property (Sunita’s house). “Sunita had taken a home loan of Rs 70 lakh from our branch, but failed to repay the instalments. On June 22 morning, we visited her house on the court’s direction to take ownership of the property. However, Sunita did not accept the letter. The same evening, she vandalised the ATM kiosk and its windows and the windshield of a car parked outside. The loss is valued at Rs 3 lakh,” Mahanti’s complaint read.
Police sources said the machete Sunita was armed with was of a tender coconut seller. “After leaving home and walking towards the bank, she came across the seller and grabbed his machete. When he opposed this, Sunita brandished the machete at him menacingly and walked away,” they said, adding: “The same morning, she had pelted stones on a neighbouring house over a fight.”