Cash van heist: Four, including police constable, detained

The police have said they have achieved a breakthrough in the over ₹7 crore ATM van robbery case with the detention of four suspected conspirators which, shockingly, includes a police constable attached to Govindapura Police Station in the city.

However, they have not made any arrests nor recovered the cash.

Of the other three, two are currently working with CMS Info Systems, and another is a former employee. CMS is the firm that was tasked with cash transfer and from whose custody the money was looted.

The 2018-batch constable attached to the Crime Department of Govindapura Police Station and the former employee of CMS Info Systems are suspected to be key to the conspiracy behind the heist.

A massive manhunt is on for a gang of four robbers who are on the run with the loot. The police said that they have their identities and photographs now. City police teams have spread out in multiple neighbouring States on the trail of the gang.

“The delay of over an hour in the incident being reported and information on the leads being leaked to the media have set us back in the investigation. Both of these have given a valuable headstart to the gang of robbers on the run,” said a senior official.

Meanwhile, the car used for the robbery was found abandoned on Vellore Road, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. The car sported a fake licence plate during the robbery, which led to a person unconnected with the case. Now that the car is found with the actual Uttar Pradesh registration plate and a probe is on to track down the owner of the car as well.

There was no money in the vehicle, which is now being subjected to forensic examination to collect evidence. The police suspect that the gang abandoned the car and changed vehicles to mislead the police. “Our teams have fanned out in multiple directions,” a senior official said.

“The investigation is going on the right track and we have leads which we were working on,” said C. Vamsi Krishna, Joint Commissioner (West), Bengaluru, expressing confidence of cracking the case soon, but refusing to divulge any details.