Conmen take away Rs 1.5L RTC money

HYDERABAD: Posing as security personnel of an agency responsible for collecting and depositing cash, three persons walked into an APSRTC bus pass counter near Uppal crossroads and walked away with Rs 1.50 lakh net cash on Friday night. The incident came to light only on Saturday morning when the cash was not found to be deposited as per the norm.
"Though the incident occurred on Friday night, the cash counter in-charge M Archana lodged a compliant on Saturday at 11 am," Uppal inspector of police R Satyanarayana Raju told STOI.
Incidentally, Archana was transferred from Sanatnagar bus pass counter to Uppal on Friday.
The RTC operates 45 counters to issue general and student bus passes across the city and outsourced the job to collect cash from counters and remit them in banks to a private security agency (SSID Security Agency, Trimulgherry), he said.
On Friday evening at around 9 pm, three persons__a gunman, a driver and cash collector wearing the security agency's uniform__landed at the counter near Uppal crossroads. The trio also showed their identity cards and gave her a photo copy of a voucher, which the security agency used to issue to receive cash from counters, the inspector added.
To make her believe, they told her that the regular security personnel were running late. As a result, they have been asked to collect cash. She believed their words and handed over Rs 1.50 lakh cash to them and took the voucher, the inspector said.
The cheating incident came to light when the security agency found that the cash collected from the Uppal bus pass counter was not remitted in the bank on Saturday. They immediately contacted the counter in-charge, who told them that she had already handed over the cash on Friday night. Then, they verified with the personnel who used to collect cash from the counter, and realised that some conmen had stolen the cash, police said.
"We suspect that former personnel of the private agency might have committed the offence. Three special teams have been pressed into operation to nab the culprits," he added.
A case was registered under section 420 (Cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Notices have also been served to the software company to install CCTVs in all cash counters to avoid similar incidents, the official added.