₹8.49 crore heist: Robbers took inspiration from movies, OTT series, say police

Police on Wednesday claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of six accused, including an employee of the firm

The accused who carried out the ₹8.49 crore robbery at a cash management company were inspired from movies and OTT series to execute the crime, police said on Wednesday.

₹8.49 crore heist: Robbers took inspiration from movies, OTT series, say police

Police on Wednesday claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of six accused, including an employee of the firm.

The robbery was planned by Mandeep Kaur alias Mona of Barnala and another accused Manjinder Singh, alias Mani, 27, of Abuwal village, who was an employee of the CMS company and was driving their cash van for the past four years. While Manjinder has been arrested, Mandeep is absconding.

Other arrested accused are Mandeep Singh alias Vicky, 33, Harwinder Singh, alias Lambu, 30, from Jagraon; Paramjit Singh, alias Pamma, 38, from Kaunke village, Mandeep’s brother Harpreet Singh from Barnala, and Narinder Singh alias Happy of Kothe Hari Singh village of Jagraon.

Commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that Mona met Manjinder in the Ludhiana court, where she used to come in connection with a rape case, and befriended him.

“Inspired by movies and OTT series, Mandeep gave an idea to Manjinder to execute robbery and to become rich overnight. They started hatching a conspiracy and included their relatives and friends,” Sidhu said.

After planning the robbery for four months, they assembled at Kaunke village at wee hours on Saturday and reached the spot.

The commissioner of police said that the accused dropped the idea of executing the robberty during day time as they suspected that they might get stuck in a traffic jam while fleeing after executing the robbery.

The police officer said that the accused had earlier planned to execute the crime during day time as Manjinder was aware that even during the day, they would not face resistance from employees or the security system.

The accused were not carrying any mobile phones as they were aware that police will track them, he said.

After executing the robbery, they drove away a cash van which Manjinder used to drive. He had switched on the flicker of the cash van, which made the police suspect involvement of some insider in the crime as the flicker of the vehicle has a separate on-off switch, the police officer said.

The commissioner of police added that the cash van was GPS installed. The police tracked the route of the cash van through GPS and found a clue of other vehicles driven along with it. The police have also interrogated at least 50 suspects to crack the case.

Recruitment on references

The commissioner of police also said that the recruitment system of the company is reference based. The company has recruited unqualified and inexperienced employees to handle and transport cash. Usually, the employees and security guards introduced their relatives and friends to the company officials stating that they bear good character and the officials used to hire them. No formal training was given to the employees.

He further said that the gate of the office can be opened by scanning the identification card or with the thumbprint of the employees. The sensors stop working when there is interrupted power supply. The office has a manual generator. In case of a power cut, the sensors remain off till the employees switch on the generator. Meanwhile, anyone can enter the office. The police found that if employees forgot their identification cards at home, they used to disconnect the power supply to the office to open the gate.

Accused posted video on social media

One of the accused, Harpreet Singh, 18, who is a brother of Mona, was very active on social media site Instagram. After executing the robbery, he posted a video on his Instagram account showing bundles of notes with a Punjabi song ‘enni ku aukaat hai’. The police have downloaded the post to produce it as a proof in the court. Harpreet is a school dropout and works at an AC repair workshop.