Cash van robbery: Rs.63.5 lakh recovered from Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI - The Delhi police have recovered from Uttar Pradesh Rs.63.5 lakh robbed from a bank’s cash van here last month. Two of the five accused are still absconding, a police official said Saturday.

The money was recovered Friday from a village in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh from the house of accused Pramod, who is absconding.

The driver of the cash van and a gunman had fled Jan 28 with Rs.67.5 lakh which were to be deposited in ATM booths across Delhi. Driver Gautam, 20, gunman Sandeep Kumar, 24, and their associate Arun Singh, 33, were arrested Wednesday.

Sandeep and Gautam were held in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh while Singh was apprehended from Samalkha in south Delhi.

“During interrogation, (Arun) Singh told us about the money and he said that he is the key conspirator,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (southern range) Amulya Patnaik.

Arun said that his two associates Pramod and Sohan were also involved and the money was with the former, who hails from his native village in Etah.

“We raided Pramod’s premises in Uttar Pradesh and recovered Rs.63.5 lakh Friday,” said Patnaik.

Arun said Sandeep also hails from his native village in Etah, while accused Gautam is his cousin and Sohan is Gautam’s friend.

After the robbery, they gave Rs.20,000 to Pramod and concealed two gunny bags containing the money at his residence, police said.

“Efforts are on to nab Pramod and Sohan who are still absconding,” added Patnaik.

The van’s driver and the gunman, who had given fake names and addresses to their company, left central Delhi’s Patel Nagar Jan 28 at 9.30 a.m. along with their custodians Suraj and Rajesh.

They loaded Rs.97.5 lakh from an HDFC Bank branch into the cash van and reached the bank’s ATM booth in south Delhi’s Alakananda around 3.15 p.m.

Suraj and Rajesh went to the booth to load some cash and pulled down the shutter at the time of loading.

Meanwhile, Gautam and Sandeep went up to the guard at the booth and Sandeep handed over his gun “to avoid any suspicion”.

However, when Rajesh and Suraj came out of the ATM booth they saw the cash van was missing. When approached, the guard narrated the incident, and sensing something amiss since the van hadn’t returned for a long while, the two informed their company manager.

Gautam and Sandeep while fleeing with Rs.67.5 lakh disabled the global positioning system in the vehicle.

The van was found in Faridabad the next day, the empty cash box was recovered Wednesday from Mathura. Police are yet to recover the remaining Rs.4 lakh.