Bengaluru: The police have detained two persons, including one of their own personnel, in connection with the Rs 7.11 crore daylight heist in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The money was being carried in a cash van for refilling of ATMs. The van was intercepted by an Innova car. Some men, claiming to be Reserve Bank of India officials, stepped out and took away the armed guards and custodian. The van was then driven away and the cash looted.
A former employee of CMS Info System Ltd – an agency that handles such cash movements – was detained earlier. The constable, attached to the Govindarajanagar police station, was detained on Friday morning while returning home from night shift.
Officials are calling this a significant breakthrough in a case that has gathered significant mileage, both politically and otherwise.
Investigators believe that the former CMS employee, a Kerala native, and the policeman were friends for around six months and had hatched the plot over an extended period. The fact that the cash van belonged to the company where one of the suspects worked has strengthened suspicions of insider involvement.
According to an official, the breakthrough came from analysing mobile tower data near the robbery site. Teams identified active numbers in the vicinity, and Call Detail Records (CDRs) showed the constable and the former employee calling each other several times during the time of the heist. They had also been in constant touch in the days leading up to the crime.
The robbers managed to flee despite immediate border checks and roadblocks. This led the police to believe that the gang could now be hiding in either Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh.
A major clue emerged when the vehicle used by the robbers was found abandoned near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district.
As many as eight special teams and around 200 officers have been deployed to track down the culprits. While an official statement is awaited, both Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and home minister G Parameshwara have expressed confidence that the case will be cracked soon.
The police have “obtained clues about the robbers” and will apprehend them at the earliest, the CM said.
The state BJP, meanwhile, has used the incident to target the ruling government, alleging a collapse of law and order.
“Bank robbery earlier, now cash meant for ATMs looted – a daring daylight heist on a busy road. The broad-daylight robbery of an ATM cash vehicle in Bengaluru this afternoon, in which money being transported to ATMs was looted, is clear proof that law and order in the state has completely collapsed,” leader of the opposition R Ashoka said.
Some suspects may be residents of the Kalyan Nagar area in Bengaluru, the police believe.
