Three people have been arrested in India after a daring 70m rupees ($800,000; £600,000) heist where armed men posing as central bank officials robbed an ATM cash van.
On Saturday, police in Bengaluru announced they had cracked the case, recovering 57.6m rupees of the stolen money just three days after the robbery.
Our investigation is on track to recover the remaining amount, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh stated to reporters.
Singh revealed that the suspects arrested include an employee of the cash transport company CMS, a former CMS worker, and a local police constable. We are looking for two to three more suspects, he added.
The audacious robbery took place in broad daylight in the Lalbagh area. The assailants, posing as officers of the Reserve Bank of India, halted the cash transport vehicle under the pretext of checking paperwork for the large sum of money. They instructed the cash custodian and two security guards to board an SUV while one gang member took control of the cash van.
The criminals effectively executed their plan by changing vehicles, utilizing false registration plates, and opting for locations with minimal CCTV coverage to offload the cash boxes.
A massive police operation was launched, involving over 200 officers across the states of Karnataka and the neighboring regions of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa.
Investigators are probing the role of CMS and looking into potential guideline violations regarding cash transfers. Singh emphasized the need for cash transport vehicles to avoid predictable routes and timings to prevent similar incidents in the future.
