Six held for attempting to steal ATM van with Rs 2.13 cr cash in Gujarat's Kutch
Gandhidham, Jan 13: Six persons were arrested for allegedly attempting to steal an ATM cash van with Rs 2.13 crore, which was abandoned after a chase by motorists and police in Gujarat's Kutch district, an official said on Saturday.
The official said that the accused, two of whom are employees of a cash management firm, were apprehended within hours of the crime that occurred on Friday morning.
The incident occurred at Banking Circle in Gandhidham town of Kutch district on Friday morning, when five employees of a cash management firm went to a nearby tea stall to eat after loading Rs 2.13 crore in the van, said Sagar Barmar, superintendent of police, Kutch-East.
The men were supposed to deposit the cash collected from a bank into various ATMs in the town during the day, he said.
"When the employees were eating at a place nearby after locking the van, someone entered the vehicle using a duplicate key and drove away. On learning about the loot, one of the employees immediately called the police while custodian Dipak Sathwara took the help of a motorcyclist to chase the van. Local police reached the spot and chased the van in their vehicle," Bagmar said.
The van hit a car driven by one Darshit Thakkar, and when it did not stop, he joined the chase and gave a lift to Sathwara, he said.
On realising that a car and police vehicle were giving a chase, the driver abandoned the van on the outskirts of the town and fled in another car belonging to his accomplice, the official said.
After recovering the van with Rs 2.13 crore cash, the police formed teams and launched a search operation to nab the culprits, he said.
Based on the CCTV footage, technical surveillance and information collected from sources, the police nabbed all the six accused, including Dinesh Fafal (21) who drove the van, the SP said.
Five others involved in the crime are Rahul Sanjot (25), Vivek Sanjot (22), Rahul Barot (20), Nitin Bhanushali (23) and Gautam Vinzoda (19), all residents of Kutch district, he said.
Investigations revealed that both Vivek Sanjot and Bhanushali worked in the cash management firm's collection division, he said.
"The duo earlier worked as custodians who were supposed to refill ATMs after collecting money from banks. At that time, they planned to siphon off money they were supposed to deposit in ATMs. However, they could not execute their plan, as they were transferred to the collection department nearly two months ago," Bagmar said.
The duo then hatched the plan to steal the cash van and roped in four others. Since the van was parked at Vivek Sanjot's residence in Adipur town of Gandhidham taluka every night, he asked Vinzoda to make a duplicate key for the vehicle, he said.
As directed by Vivek Sanjot, Bhanushali approached employees in the van and convinced them to have some snacks. As soon as these employees left after locking the vehicle, Fafal, Rahul Sanjot and Barot came to the spot in a car, Bagmar said.
"Using the duplicate key, Fafal entered the van and drove away from the spot. Rahul Sanjot and Barot were following the van in their car, while Vinzoda also followed it in his car," he said.
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11 more bodies retrieved from Arunachal accident site
Itanagar (PTI): Eleven more bodies were retrieved on Saturday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 labourers from Assam were travelling fell, an official said.
With this, 17 bodies have been recovered from the accident site, Anjaw's deputy commissioner Milo Kojin said.
He said three more bodies will be brought out on Sunday.
The operation, being conducted by a joint team of the NDRF and Army, resumed at 6 am.
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"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain, and the gorge is very deep," Kojin said.
The operation was suspended around 4 pm due to low visibility and will be resumed on Sunday morning, he said.
"One person is still missing, and a search operation will be carried out tomorrow," he added.
The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam in the district. On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp, following which the authorities were alerted.
Six bodies were recovered from the gorge on Friday and handed over to their families on Saturday.
