Rs 7.11 crore Bengaluru heist: How police arrested nine thieves posing as RBI officers

Bengaluru police busted a daring heist of Rs 7.11 crore which was looted from ATM cash van on Tuesday (Nov 25). The sum has been recovered and nine people, including a police constable, have been arrested in connection to the robbery. “The six arrested suspects have been produced before the court and placed in police custody for further investigation. The investigation is ongoing,” police said in a statement as quoted in news agency PTI.

It was two days after the incident that three suspects were apprehended, and Rs 5.76 crore cash was recovered. Three more suspects were held near Nampally Metro Station in Hyderabad on November 23, and a sum of Rs 54.74 lakh was recovered from them. "In total, nine individuals have been arrested, and Rs 7.11 crore in cash has been recovered," the police said.

How was the heist conducted?

The robbers disguised themselves as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officers. Thereafter, they stopped the van transporting cash; the thieves said they needed to check the paperwork for the huge sum of money in the vehicle. According to police, the person in charge of the cash in transit and the two security guards in the vehicle were asked to step out and sit in an SUV. And this is how the thieves orchestrated the robbery by transferring the containers with money.

Fake car registration number plates and identification of a location with inadequate CCTV surveillance aided their plan. Over 200 police personnel were alerted and deployed across Karnataka and neighbouring states Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and UT Goa to hunt the robbers.