The Southeast Division police cracked an ATM security van robbery case by arresting five men, including an engineering student, and recovered Rs. 55,52,500, which they hid in a grove adjacent to the K.R. Puram lake.
Three more at large
The police said three more suspects are at large.
The cash belonged to the Union Bank of India and the police are yet to trace another Rs. 10 lakh, which the suspects claimed was robbed from them on October 4 when they were on their way to fill ATM machines.
Assistant Commissioner of Police H. Veerabhadra Gowda, who is heading the investigation, said Ajith, Manjunath, Arthesh, Jagadish and Nagaraj were planning to escape to Tirupati but were nabbed in the nick of time after the police tracked their movements through mobile tower location.
While Ajith was the cash handler in the van, Jagadish was a gunman, Manjunath is an engineering student while Arthesh is a supplier in a bar, the police said.
Cooked up plan
The police said Ajith and Jagadish cooked up the robbery plan. But their claim of being waylaid and robbed did not wash with the police due to their contradictory statements.