TIRUPATI: The role of two brothers from Chittapara village in Gudipala mandal has come to light in connection with the Rs 7.11-crore robbery that occurred on Wednesday at South End Circle in Bengaluru, where cash was stolen from a bank cash-transport van.
Bengaluru police identified two of the six accused as residents of Chittapara in Chittoor district and questioned their family members in village on Friday.
The suspects — Ravi and Rakesh, sons of Ramadasu, a retired Army employee — had been living in Bengaluru. Ramadasu recently returned to his village after his wife’s death.
Police said Ravi worked as a software employee in Bengaluru, where he reportedly became acquainted with a dismissed police constable. Acting on the constable’s advice, Ravi and Rakesh allegedly took part in the robbery.
Karnataka police learned that the stolen cash boxes were brought to Chittapara in a vehicle with a Uttar Pradesh registration number.
After this information leaked, the accused reportedly left the vehicle and fled. Police said the four stolen cash boxes were transported to the village in this vehicle.
Investigators said the accused chose the Chittapara forest area due to poor mobile network and its strategic routes to Vellore, Gudiyattam, Palamaner and Chittoor, using it as an escape corridor. CCTV later captured them leaving for Vellore in another vehicle. Karnataka police searched Koormany Palli on Friday and seized Rs 5 crore from house of Naveen, son of retired Army man Nagaraju.
A senior police officer of Chittoor district told TNIE that the two techies involved in Rs 7.5-crore money heist had also recruited three more youths from the Kuppam rural area for “easy money.”