Brothers held in ATM van heist, more than half the cash recovered

August 04, 2012 09:35 am | Updated November 16, 2021 11:16 pm IST - Bangalore:

In a breakthrough, the city police arrested five men, including the driver of a private security vehicle, who had fled with Rs. 44 lakh meant for replenishing cash in State Bank of India’s ATMs and seized Rs. 27 lakh of the stash. Four of the five men are siblings, hailing from Malur in Kolar district. A sixth man is still at large and efforts are on to trace him and to recover the remaining cash.

Police said Sikandar Pasha (21) had been hired for the day by CMS Securitas on July 27 when he drove away the cash-laden vehicle.

He was nabbed along with his three brothers — Javed Pasha (25), Mujahid Pasha (21), Jamshed Pasha (33) — and their acquaintance Raghavendra Reddy (32), following intensive search operations.

Stand-in driver

It may be recalled here that the vehicle, loaded with Rs. 1 crore, set out from the SBI’s main branch on St. Mark’s Road.

It was being driven by Sikandar Pasha, who was standing in for the usual driver who was on leave.

Gangammanagudi police, who made the arrests, said after replenishing some 8 or 10 ATMs, the other four suspects came on two motorcycles and intercepted it on Ramachandrapura Road. They got in, threatened the three other staff members of the security agency with a knife and gagged them. They then drove the vehicle towards Hoskote and forced their captives out of the vehicle near a horticultural field, before driving off.

No verification

Police said CMS Securitas hired Sikandar Pasha without verifying his credentials though he claimed he worked for a travel agency.

The five were produced before the court and remanded in police custody till August 10.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.