The criminals fired two gun shots and robbed Rs 10 lakh cash. (File Photo)
Three persons have been arrested in connection with the bank cash van heist in national capital in which Rs 10 lakh was stolen in Pandav Nagar area of east Delhi, police said on Monday.
The meticulously planned heist was carried out on December 19 by three men while the employees of Brinks Securities were supplying cash in ATMs of trans-Yamuna area.
When the cash van reached the SBI ATM for depositing cash around 2 pm, the custodians of the cash were attacked by two armed criminals.
The criminals fired two gun shots and robbed Rs 10 lakh cash kept in a suitcase after overpowering the gunman.
"Earlier, we were informed that the cash amount stolen was Rs 5 lakh but later we were informed that the stolen amount is Rs 10 lakh," said DCP East Omvir Singh.
During investigation, the teams probing the incident tried to get information about gangs operating with similar modus operandi.
The cash van had started from Janakpuri in west Delhi and had then come to East Delhi to replenish the ATMs.
CCTV footages from market areas of east and west districts were collected to determine from where the accused had started tailing the van, the officer said.
"A secret information was received by the police team that the accused would be coming near Cross River Mall on December 25. A raid was conducted and the three accused persons, identified as Bittoo, Sunny and Rohit were apprehended in an Accent Car yesterday afternoon," said the officer.
The accused had gone to Haridwar after committing the robbery and had returned to the area to see what was happening.
"Out of the robbed amount of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 9.48 lakh was recovered. One improvised pistol, a desi katta and a Pulsar bike that was stolen from the area of Kashmere Gate and was used in the commission of the robbery was also recovered," said DCP Singh.
The accused only spent Rs 52,000 from thr robbed amount as they didn't want to draw suspicion and had even changed their mobile numbers so that they couldn't be traced, he said.
Sunny, who works as a cab driver, told police that after demonetisation, he had seen several cash vans which supply the cash to different ATMs, in the area of Karawal Nagar and other parts of northeast Delhi.