Robbery case cracked: 5 held, Rs 51 lakh in cash recovered

Cash was supposed to be deposited in ATMs in Belur and Chikkamagaluru

Police have arrested five persons of a gang that recently robbed a consignment of currency notes on the Hassan-Belur Road meant to be deposited in ATMs  and recovered Rs 51.40 lakh from them. One more accused is yet to be arrested.

The accused have been identified as Ramesh, 36, son of Mariyappa, a resident of Hebbal, Mysuru; Prakash, 42, son of late Ramanna, Leelavathi Extension, Maddur town, Mandya district; Harsha alias Harthacanute, son of late Siddegowda, a resident of Sunkenahalli in Bengaluru; Shankar, 27, son of late Basavaraju, Indiranagar, Bengaluru; and Prabhu, 28, son of late Kumaraswamy, Bhuvaneshwari Nagari, Bengaluru. While Prabhu was a manager with a company entrusted with depositing money in ATMs, Prakash was a driver in the company for some time.

Prabhu used to share the information about the amount of money being transported in the company vehicles. All the accused have been arrested from Hebbal area in Mysuru recently.

Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, Superintendent of Police Raman Gupta said Honnappa, a resident of Chikkamagaluru and a driver and supervisor of Hassan-based RCI Cash Management Agency Sagar, were going to Belur and Chikkamagaluru in a Tata Indica car on August 8 with Rs 61 lakh in cash to deposit it in ATMs of the Corporation Bank, when the incident occurred.

“The accused, who followed the car in a Tata Sumo vehicle, rammed into the car near Kadadarahalli Gate on Belur Road and picked up a quarrel. They tied both Honnappa and Sagar in the car, blind-folded them and shifted the cash bags to their SUV. While a couple of them drove the car towards K R Nagar in Mysuru district, the rest fled in the SUV,” he said.

The SP said the accused left the car in K R Nagar and dispersed after sharing the booty. Among them, one person reached Mysuru in a KSRTC bus. The investigation team, led by DySPs Jayaram and V J Sajith, could bust the case on the basis of the complaint and information provided by the victims Honnappa and Sagar, footage of the CCTV cameras installed on the main roads in the city. A complaint had been registered at Hassan rural police station, he added.

The accused had conspired to loot the money with the inputs given by Prabhu, a manager with Mphasis, a firm responsible for depositing cash in a majority of the ATMs in Southern India.

Mphasis issues sub-contracts to a few smaller agencies like RCI Cash Management Agency. It is learnt that the sixth accused has Rs 8 lakh of the booty.Additional SP Rashmi was present in the media conference.