Another van driver flees with cash in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Dec 19: The driver of a van carrying new currency sped away with Rs 20 lakh on Saturday evening.

The haul was in Rs 2,000 denomination. Ceaban Hussain Mazumder, a native of Assam, pulled off the heist when the staff who accompanied him were replenishing an ATM in Challaghatta near Old Airport Road.

A few hours after the incident, the van was found abandoned near Yamlur off Old Airport Road, while the cash trunk was found intact near Bellandur Circle on Sunday morning.

This is the second such incident in the city in the past one month. On November 23, Dominic Roy, who was hired by Logicash Solutions, fled with Rs 1.37 crore.

According to the police, Mazumder (26) was working for Secure Value India Limited, a cash management company, in Madiwala for the past six weeks.

At the time of joining, Mazumder had given a fake residential address of a rented room near Sony junction in Koramangala. It is not clear whether the company did a police verification before hiring Mazumder. The police also said there was no such request from the company.

On Saturday evening, Mazumder, a gunman, and Ramesh, an employee of Secure India, left the office with Rs 52 lakh. They first went to an ATM near Madiwala and replenished Rs 2 lakh and then stopped at a kiosk near Challaghatta. The gunman and Ramesh took Rs 30 lakh and went into the ATM. Mazumder seized the opportunity and drove away with the cash, police suspect.

A senior police officer said, “Ramesh and the gunman assumed Mazumder would park the vehicle further down the road. But he did not stop the van and disappeared. Ramesh alerted his superiors and the police control room, which informed the Old Airport Road police station.”

The police questioned employees of the company, Ramesh and the gunman. “At 9 pm, a case was registered at the Old Airport Road station. The police started tracking Mazumder and the van, which was fitted with GPS. Police tried calling Mazumder on his mobile, but it was switched off.

“Around 10.30 pm, passersby found a van abandoned near Yamalur Road and alerted the police. By then the police too had traced the vehicle's location,” the officer said. A case has been registered at the Old Airport Road station, and efforts are on trace to Mazumder.

Money intact

On Sunday, some people found a trunk abandoned on the footpath near Bellandur Circle and informed the HSR Layout police. On opening it, the police found the Rs 20 lakh in cash.

“Mazumder might have abandoned the van and trunk fearing arrest. Another possibility is that he could have abandoned the trunk as he could not open the lock. But we can conclude that it was a pre-planned act,” the officer said.