The Thane crime branch on Thursday arrested six men from Nashik for in connection with the armed robbery at a cash management firm in Thane, on Tuesday.
Police sources said the men were picked up from hotels in Trimbakeshwar and Satpur industrial hub of Nashik. The officers said that they have recovered some cash from the six. The police believe that a total of 15 men were involved in the heist.
While employees of Checkmate, the cash management firm, claimed that cash worth Rs. 12 crore was missing, police sources initially pegged the amount at Rs. five crore. The police later revised the amount to Rs. 9.16 crore after an audit.
An embarrassed Thane police stepped up their investigations, and set up eight specialised teams to trace the robbers. The crime branch formed five teams, and three teams were formed by the Wagle Estate police station in whose jurisdiction the crime took place. In all, 70 police personnel, were despatched to Pune, Navi Mumbai, and Uttar Pradesh.
Apart from the arrested men, the police are also questioning 15 to 20 people living in the nearby areas. Statements of 20 people who work in the vicinity of Checkmate have been recorded, police officials said.
ACP Nagesh Lohar of Thane Crime branch, “We suspect that two people employed with the company are also involved in tipping off the robbers about the cash.”
The robbers entered the office at Teen Hath Naka around 3 a.m, the police said. They first took the security guard as hostage, and clipped wires of the CCTV cameras. They also managed to take away the camera’s recording box along with the cellphones of the employees. “The robbers appeared to have thorough knowledge about the office,” said a police official.
