Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

SBM van hijacked, Rs. 17 lakh taken

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE June 18. In a daring highway robbery on the Bangalore-Tumkur Highway on Tuesday afternoon, six robbers carrying weapons stopped a van of the State Bank of Mysore (SBM) which was transporting Rs. 17.35 lakh in cash, shot at one of the three bank employees who were travelling in the vehicle, and sped away in it. The incident occurred at Madanayakanahalli in Madhavara police station limits on the outskirts of Bangalore.

The three bank employees — the van driver, Veeranna, a cashier, Santhosh Kumar, and an attendant, Harish — were taking cash remittances from the SBM's Madhavara branch to the Nelamangala branch of the bank at around 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Near the Nelamangala turning, six men on two motorcycles forced the van driver to stop the vehicle, and threatened him and the two others with weapons. The robbers boarded the vehicle, and asked the driver to resume the journey. When the van started moving, Santhosh Kumar jumped out. He suffered head injuries. At Thotagere, the robbers asked Veeranna to stop the vehicle, forced him and Harish to remove their clothes, and used the clothes to wrap the currency notes. The robbers, who made them alight from the vehicle, shot at Harish from a country-made pistol and drove away.

Meanwhile, Santhosh Kumar, despite his injuries, managed to board a bus and reach a telephone booth. He contacted the bank and alerted it. Harish and Santosh Kumar were shifted to Mallya Hospital, where their condition was said to be stable.

Senior police officials, including the Inspector General of Police (Central Range), K.V. Ravindranath Tagore, visited the area.

Special squads formed

Mr. Tagore told The Hindu that the van was yet to be traced. Three special squads had been constituted to nab the robbers who were suspected to be locals, he said.

The Additional Superintendent of Police, Bangalore Rural District, M.S. Marthurkar, said the robbers were speaking Kannada and Hindi, and were aged between 25 and 30 years. ``We are imposing nakabandhi in Bangalore Rural District to trace the van, and have alerted the police of the neighbouring districts,'' Mr. Marthurkar added.

The officials of the State Crime Records Bureau have generated images of the accused using computers and on the basis of their description given by Veeranna. Police suspect that the motorcycles abandoned by the robbers were stolen vehicles.

Asked about the lack of security for the van, an SBM official told The Hindu that the bank rules permitted a security escort for vehicles carrying a sum of Rs. 20 lakh or more. Police escort was only provided for vehicles transporting amounts of at least Rs. 50 lakh.

Ruling out any procedural lapses, the official said cash remittances had to be taken to the bank's Nelamangala branch, which had facilities to store currency notes. Cash was transported regularly, according to the official.

Meanwhile, sources said that the cash that was carried in the van had been insured.

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