Securitymen drive off with bank's Rs 7.5 cr

Four employees of a security agency entrusted with transporting Rs 7.5 crore from the Axis Bank currency chest at Yeyyadi here to the branch at Koramangala in Bengaluru have driven off with cash.

The employees of Sis Prosegur Holdings left with Rs 7.5 crore in a Mahindra Bolero for Bengaluru at 8.30 am on Thursday but did not reach the state capital till Friday morning. The car was found abandoned at Arasu Kallahalli in Hunsur taluk of Chamarajanagar district on Friday evening.

Sis Prosegur Holdings chief Sachin filed a complaint at the Kankanady police station against the security guards, Basappa, Poovanna, custodian Parashuram and driver Karibasava. Their mobile phones have been switched off. A police source said it was too early to say whether more people were involved in the daring heist. Bheemayya, the younger brother of Poovanna, who works as an office assistant in the Bengaluru branch of the security agency, has also gone missing. The siblings are said to be cousins of Basappa.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Axis Bank insisted that the cash transfer systems and processes of the bank were “robust and fully compliant with existing regulations”. “In this incident, the cash was being transferred by Sis Prosegur Holding Pvt Ltd, a cash transfer agency, and the amounts being transferred were fully insured. Neither the van in question nor the staff involved belonged to the bank,” the statement read.

Mangaluru Police Commissioner M Chandra Sekhar has formed a special team under ACPs Shruthi N S and Valentine D’Souza to crack the case.