Three people have been arrested in India after a daring 70m rupees ($800,000; £600,000) heist in which armed men posing as central bank officials robbed an ATM cash van.
On Saturday, police in the southern city of Bengaluru announced they had cracked the case, successfully recovering 57.6m rupees of the money stolen just three days prior.
Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh stated, Our investigation is on track to get the remaining amount. He confirmed that three suspects had been taken into custody and that authorities are pursuing two to three additional individuals.
The arrested individuals include Gopal Prasad, an employee of the cash transport company CMS; J Xavier, a former employee of CMS; and Annappa Naik, a local police constable.
The robbery unfolded in broad daylight in the Lalbagh area of Bengaluru, where the culprits impersonated officers of the Reserve Bank of India. They halted the transport vehicle, claiming they needed to verify paperwork for the substantial cash amount.
The cash custodian and two security guards were coerced into an SUV, enabling one of the thieves to take control of the cash van. The police noted that the gang had modified their vehicles, used counterfeit registration plates, and chose locations with limited CCTV surveillance for the cash transfer.
A significant search operation commenced on Wednesday, deploying over 200 police officers across Karnataka and neighboring states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa.
Detectives are also probing CMS for potential breaches of cash transfer regulations. Commissioner Singh remarked, The vans should not follow the same route and timing repeatedly so as to become predictable.
