BENGALURU: In a scene reminiscent of a Charlie Chaplin movie, two citizens and traffic policemen in Banaswadi foiled a well-planned attempt by a gang of five to escape with Rs 5 lakh in cash. The accused are all staffers of a cash management service. While police nabbed four, one who was trying to drive away with the vehicle, managed to escape by jumping out of the moving car even as three others were seated. The car then rammed into a parked truck.
The drama unfolded around 2pm near in Kalyan Nagar on Thursday.
The arrested are Suman, the driver of the ATM cash-carrying vehicle, Manju Chandra, the gunman, Deepak and Sathish Kumar, both cash loaders. All the four are employees of Radiant Cash Management Services, while the one who escaped, Umesh, was an outsider who posed as the attacker to make it look like a robbery.
Police said the gang of five had it all planned. Suman drove the vehicle to an ATM near Om Shakti Temple and gunman Manju and cash-loaders Deepak and Sathish went to the ATM. After filling the machine with Rs 6 lakh cash, they pretended to relieve themselves nearby. Suman stayed near the vehicle which still had Rs 5 lakh cash in it. Suman had removed the ignition key to display adherence to safety protocol.This is when Umesh arrived. He pretended to threaten Suman with a sharp weapon and drove away with the vehicle. Almost immediately, Manju Chandra, Deepak and Sathish jumped into the vehicle and the gang sped away.
Interestingly, Suman, the ‘stranded’ driver, rushed to the nearest traffic policeman - assistant sub-inspector Kumar D C of Banaswadi limits. Suman told the policeman that he had been assaulted by a gang who then drove away with the vehicle with Rs 5 lakh cash.But that was as far as things went as per their plan.
While driving away at great speed, Umesh almost crashed into an oncoming autorickshaw driven by Mohan Kumar. He was ferrying a woman passenger - Annapoorna. Incidentally, both of them had noticed what had unfolded near the ATM.
Interestingly, Mohan Kumar also approached ASI Kumar at the same time that Suman was there and told him what had ensued. Immediately, the auto driver chased the vehicle while his passenger was still in it and the police followed suit.
When Umesh realised that he was being chased, he lost his nerve and jumped out of the moving vehicle, leaving a panicking threesome behind. The vehicle then crashed into a parked truck. The three were immediately nabbed, Suman was caught a few minutes later.Police said the gang had even made a duplicate of the vehicle’s ignition key. This was used by Umesh to show that the robbery was genuine.
Narendra Babu, who heads Radiant Cash Management Services, shared details of the accused with the police later. Efforts are now on to nab Umesh.