Hyderabad: ATM firm driver who fled with Rs 92 lakh held

HYDERABAD: A day after it came to light that a driver of an ATM cash replenishing service company escaped with Rs 92 lakh cash from Chilkalguda, police nabbed the culprit and recovered cash on Wednesday.
Though the incident happened on Sunday, police, after a manhunt, managed to nab the offender on Wednesday. The offender provided fake details to his employer to hoodwink law-enforcement agencies, police sources said.

On Sunday evening, P Harish, 45, manager incharge of CMS Infosystems, lodged a complaint with Chilkalguda police alleging that a driver of one of their vehicles used to transport cash from banks to ATM centres, had escaped with Rs 92 lakh cash on Sunday afternoon at Chilkalguda.
According to the complainant, the accused driver, gunman Ravi Kumar and cash custodians T Ravi and Jogammeda went from their office in Lower Tank Bund to SBI’s branch at Koti around 10.30am on Sunday. Around 12 noon, CMS staff reached SBI’s Koti branch in an SUV. They took indent from a bank employee and withdrew Rs 1.6 crore to load in SBI’s ATM centres on the AS Rao Nagar route.
The CMS team made their first stop at an SBI ATM near Shiva tea point in Chilkalguda at 1pm and took out Rs 68 lakh cash from the vehicle to load in the ATM.
While gunman Ravi Kumar, cash custodians T Ravi and Jogammeda got down from the vehicle to load the cash in ATM, the accused drove the SUV ahead after informing his colleagues that he would take a U-turn and get ready to go towards their next stop.
As the driver did not return with the vehicle for a long time, the CMS team alerted a colleague, who, in turn, alerted the manager. CMS staff tracked the GPS of the SUV and located it near Lalapet flyover.
“At Lalapet flyover, CMS staff found the abandoned vehicle, but the remaining Rs 92 lakh cash and the accused was missing,” Chilkalguda police said. Police registered a case under Sections 408 and 420 of the IPC and launched a manhunt to nab the offenders. Both police and Task Force teams searched for the offender and nabbed him. According to sources, the accused joined CMS with an intention to commit the offence and provided fake details at the time of joining to avoid detection by law-enforcement agencies.