Three people have been arrested in India after a daring 70 million rupees ($800,000; £600,000) heist in which armed men posing as central bank officials robbed an ATM cash van.
On Saturday, police in the southern city of Bengaluru reported the case to be resolved, boasting the recovery of 57.6 million rupees of the money stolen three days prior.
Our investigation is on track to get the remaining amount, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh stated.
Commissioner Singh later confirmed to the BBC that three suspects had been detained, adding, We are looking for two to three more.
The arrested individuals include Gopal Prasad, who is employed by the cash transport company CMS, J Xavier, a former CMS employee, and Annappa Naik, a local police constable.
The robbery was executed in broad daylight in Bengaluru's Lalbagh area. The thieves, disguised as officers of the Reserve Bank of India, stopped the cash transport vehicle under the pretense of checking paperwork for such a large amount of cash.
The cash custodian and two security guards were instructed into an SUV, while a member of the gang took control of the cash van, according to police reports.
Investigators revealed that the robbers switched vehicles, utilized fake registration plates, and selected locations with minimal CCTV coverage to transfer the cash boxes.
A massive operation to track down the gang commenced on Wednesday, with over 200 police officers dispatched across Karnataka and nearby states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa.
Detectives are scrutinizing the procedures of CMS and probing potential infractions of cash transfer guidelines, as Singh cautioned that the cash vans should not follow the same route and timing to avoid predictability.
