Pramesh S Jain
Congratulations to Team BCP & South Division
In a swift action,a team of 200 police personnel took 54 hours to cracked the most sensational day light ATM van robbery case occurred on Wednesday and arrested a police constable and a fleet manager of CMS company and its former employer as key conspirator in the case .
City Police Commissioner,Seemant Kumar Singh while congratulating the team and announcing cash reward of ₹5 lakh said that the efforts are on track down the remaining accused who are on the run.
It was a meticulously planned,near-perfect insider-assisted robbery which has been cracked within a record time,Mr. Seemant Kumar Simgh said in a press conference on Saturday.
The core conspirators were identified as Annappa Naik J Xavier,and Gopal Prasad three key accused were apprehended and a substantial portion of the stolen cash,amounting to Rs.5.76 crore,was recovered.
On November 19,at around 1.20 pm,CMS reported that a currency chest van carrying ₹7.11 crore had been hijacked near Siddapura Lalbagh road by a gang posing as RBI officials in a car having GOI sticker.
The gang intercepted the cash van took two security personnel in their car on the pretext of inquiry,while another accused boarded the cash van and asked the driver to drove towards dairy circle flyover .
He later stopped the vehicle near the flyover took the cash box at gun point and escaped, while the other accused dropped the security guards and cash custodian on the way and fled the scene only to join the other accused with the cash box.
The police got the information about the robbery 1.5 hours later due to confusion and lack of coordination among the staff, which is being probed .
This has helped the accused to escape from the city after changing vehicles which has fake registration number plates .
Challenges in Cracking the Case
The robbery was executed with meticulous planning and almost no operational slipups:
Multiple stops were made in CCTV blind spots.
No mobile phones were used during the operation.
The gang communicated in multiple languages to mislead investigators.
Several vehicles were used,with frequent changes in registration plates.
The stolen currency was not serialised, making tracking difficult.
Early media reports based on unofficial inputs affected sensitive parts of the investigation.
Despite these hurdles,Bengaluru Police cracked the case rapidly through coordinated teamwork and intensive technical analysis,Mr.Singh said .
The Investigation:
A massive multi-layered probe was launched:
Teams comprising 11 Police Inspectors ,two ACPs from South Division,along with Six PIs from CCB,worked under senior officers.
Technical and field leads were pursued across Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh,and Telangana, with some teams extending operations to Goa.
Over 30 persons were questioned.
CCTV footage,vehicle movement patterns, and local
intelligence were analysed continuously.
Within 24 hours,police had identified the suspects and the vehicles used in the heist.
Breakthroughs
Three accused were identified and detained within 54 hours of the crime.
₹5.76 crore of the stolen cash was recovered within 60 hours.
One vehicle used in the operation was traced and seized.
The gang is estimated to comprise 6–8 members involved in planning, execution, and movement of the stolen cash.
Police teams are continuing efforts to trace the remaining accused at the neighbouring district including Kerala, Tamil Nadu,AP, Telangana and Goa to recover the balance amount.
Black sheeps :
While Mr.Singh appreciated the police team work for cracking the case and uploading the dignity of the Bengaluru police,he bemoaned that one of the accused is a police constable identified as Annappa Naik,serving in Govindapura station as crime staff.
Naik is said to have played a key role in supervising the entire operation.The incident needs serious introspection and his background and activities are being verified the city police commissioner, said adding that serious measures are being taken up to ensure such incidents should not be repeated .
Probe revealed that while Xavier,37,is former employee of the company who are in touch with the company staff knew inside out of the company,Gopal Prasad,36 is a fleet manager .
The trio are drinking partners and hatched a plan three months ago roping in many others for the job and prepared a detailed plan.
The accused has even did a reccee of the area to plan how to execute the operations and escpae routes .
Loopholes of the company:
The CMS company which is dealing with crores of rupees of transactions everyday do not follow safety measures despite set of guidelines issued by the RBI,the probed revealed .
The guidelines on the deployment of staff training for the security personnel,background verification,GPS tracking and recruitment of staff have been grossly violated which resulted in occurrence of such incidents .
We have prepared a report in this regard and submitted to the authority concerned seeking action against the complaint for violating the guidelines,Mr.Singh said .
