Mangaluru : Five men assaulted a lorry driver and made away with Rs 17,000 in cash and a mobile phone in Rekhya village on the Shiradi Ghat stretch of the Mangaluru-BenglauruNational Highway on Saturday night. This incident comes four days after a robbery near Uppinangady on the same highway.

According to the Dharmasthala police, lorry driver Raghavendra of Arsikere was bringing a load of cement bags from Gundlupet to Udupi. He stopped the lorry around 10.30 p.m. by the roadside in the forest area near Rekhya village to relive himself. Even as he was getting into the lorry, the five members, who came in a vehicle, blocked his way.

They dragged Raghavendra out of the lorry and assaulted him.

They smothered him and slashed his chest with a knife before snatching Rs 17,000 in cash and the mobile phone he was carrying. The five then went away in their vehicle with the key of the lorry.

On a complaint by Raghavendra, the Dakshina Kannada police have launched a search for the five.

Superintendent of Police Bhushan Gulabrao Borase said that the gang that robbed the lorry driver in Uppinangady was different from the one involved in the robbery on Saturday night.

“We are working on some clues. We hope to arrest the robbers involved in Saturday’s incident shortly,” he said.

Mr. Borase said that they have planned to set up a police check-post on the National Highway following the two cases of robbery.