At around 4 pm, Sanjay Sitaram Nandgaonkar (36) and Pradnya Desai, employees of Life Insurance Corporation of India were carrying a briefcase with cash worth Rs 1.50 lakh to deposit the money in the nearby Karnataka Bank.

Walking the distance, they were set upon by three robbers Rajesh Dattaram Arekar (21), Satish Keshav Pujari (22) and Ramdeen Dattaram Rajbhar (19).The trio threatened the LIC employees with choppers and attempted to snatch the bag. However, both Nandgaonkar and Desai resisted and received chopper injuries in the process.

Suddenly a single-decker BEST bus, No 295, swung past. Spying the fracas the bus screeched to a halt and the driver and conductor hopped off to intervene. With some help from the passengers, they beat the daylights out of the thugs. If that wasn't enough, the BEST staffers and bystanders locked up thewould-be robbers in an empty police chowkie before actually calling in the cops. Two of the robbers, Arekar and Pujari were admitted to Bhagwati hospital with serious injuries, while Rajbhar was taken into police custody.

The two LIC employees were also injured. They were treated and later discharged.