BENGALURU: The driver of a van ferrying cash for banks and ATMs fled with Rs 1.37 crore from the busy Kempe Gowda Road on Wednesday afternoon. Of the Rs 1.37 crore, Rs 1.36 crore was in denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1 lakh in 100-rupee notes.
The culprit Dominic Selvaraj,a resident of Lingarajapuram and hailing from Tamil Nadu, was a contract driver for Logicash - a cash management service provider company.
The incident happened around 2.10 pm, when the vehicle from Logicash was parked outside the Bank Of India (BOI) main city branch. Two Logicash officials, Shivkumar and Saleem, went inside BOI to enquire if the bank had any money to deposit. A security guard Chamanlal and Selvaraj stayed behind in the vehicle.
A few minutes later, Chamanlal told Selvaraj that he needed to attend nature’s call and left leaving behind his gun in the vehicle. Taking advantage, Selvaraj allegedly drove away with the Rs 1.37 crore kept in the vehicle.
When Shivkumar and Saleem returned, they were shocked to find the vehicle missing. They initially believed Chamanlal and Selvaraj had fled with the money. However, Chamanlal surfaced a few minutes later and explained the situation. Shivkumar then rushed to Upparpet Police Station and filed a complaint.
M N Anucheth, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said the vehicle had collected deposits worth Rs 2 crore from State Bank of India, JC Road branch, and Rs 5 lakh from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nagarpet. In between, Rs 69 lakh was transferred to another vehicle of Logicash to reload ATMs.
Police have detained Chamanlal for questioning. Selvaraj’s wife was found missing from her residence. They are also investigating into alleged security breach by Logicash in not equipping this particular vehicle with GPS tracker.