Mangaluru : Mangaluru City Police will felicitate Ramachandra Achar, an employee of Kotekar Vyavasaya Seva Sahakari Bank Ltd who thwarted robbery bid on the bank at K C Road on June 23. Working as gold appraiser at the bank, presence of mind shown by Ramachandra in throwing a stone at two motorcycle borne miscreants fleeing the bank with the loot forcing them to drop it and flee the scene empty handed came in for praise from police and his peers.

Responding to mention of Ramachandra’s heroics at the monthly SC/ST meet organized by the city police and demand that he be felicitated at the district Independence Day function, K M Shantharaju, deputy commissioner of police (law and order), who chaired the meeting said the department had planned to honour him when Karnataka police chief R K Dutta was in the city recently. However, the plan could not materialize due to various reasons, he noted.

“We have not forgotten Ramachandra’s act and will shortly felicitate him in a befitting manner at a function in the presence of city police chief T R Suresh,” Shantharaju said, adding the city police will also cite the action of the appraiser in its new beat system meetings that are being held at each police station limits. “We want cooperation from citizens in thwarting and detecting crimes and individuals such as Ramachandra should become inspiration to their peers,” he noted.

The act of Ramachandra locked up by robbers in the toilet with others in coming out of confinement and then throwing a stone at them meant the accused Ramachandra, 57 of Someshwar and Mohan Kumar, 47 of Kotekar had to drop the loot – 20-kgs of gold ornaments they had stolen minutes earlier at the spot and flee. The accused subsequently nabbed by CCB sleuths on July 5 intended to sell the stolen jewellery and repay the debts they had run in their profession.