Nearly seven hours after Dominic Selvaraj drove off in a van with Rs. 1.37 crore in cash meant for ATMs on Wednesday afternoon, the police located the abandoned vehicle at Vasanthnagar in the city.
But, there was no sign of the driver, who appears to have fled with Rs. 92 lakh in cash, leaving behind Rs. 45 lakh, a gun and cartridges.
The van was found by a patrolling team late on Wednesday night next to an under-construction building on 1st Cross, Vasanthnagar.
Soon after an alert was raised, a second police team rushed to the spot and broke open the locked van to find that a portion of the cash was missing. “Of the money left behind, Rs. 44 lakh was in Rs. 2,000 denomination currency, and Rs. 1 lakh in Rs. 100 notes,” said a a senior police officer. However, there was no sign of Dominic, who had been contracted by a private logistics firm that manages cash transits.
On Wednesday afternoon, while his colleagues were at the Bank of India branch on K.G. Road collecting a cash consignment that was to be deposited into ATMs, and the security guard was on a restroom break, Dominic decamped with Rs. 1.37 crore. The police have launched a massive hunt and is monitoring exit and entry points in the city.
