Four more remanded in August 9 cash van robbery

A judicial magistrate on Monday remanded four more suspects in the custody of police for interrogation in a case pertaining to the allegedly biggest robbery of the year in which a cash van driver ran away with over Rs200 million.

The investigating officer of the case presented Majeed Gul, Noorullah, Saifullah and Salman before the relevant JM of the South district, seeking their physical remand for two weeks for questioning about their involvement in the robbery.

The IO said that the suspects were arrested on the charge of facilitating the robbery, and that some of the looted money was recovered from them: Rs8.1 million from Gul, Rs1.3 million from Noor, Rs11.9 million from Saif and Rs4 million from Salman.

He requested the court to grant him the custody of these suspects on physical remand because he wanted their help in tracing the absconding main suspect, Shah Hussain, so the investigation could be completed.

The judge, however, allowed the IO only three days to keep the suspects in his custody and ordered him to submit a progress report on the next date of hearing. Earlier, the court had sent two suspects, Asad Ali and Naimat Ali, both brothers, to jail in judicial custody after police completed questioning them in the same case.

According to the IO, the brothers owned a high-roof van that was used to transport Rs205 million looted by a driver of a security company from a cash van on II Chundrigar Road. He said that the suspects had handed over their vehicle to their brother-in-law Zulfiqar, who along with the main suspect had been on the run with the money.

According to the FIR, on August 9 a van belonging to a security company was dispatched with Rs200 million to be deposited in the State Bank and Rs5 million at a Bank Al Falah branch, but the driver ran away with the vehicle, leaving other staffers behind.

The vehicle was later found parked in Miskeen Gali in the old city area with the help of the vehicle tracker but the driver, cash, some weapons, camera and DVR — all were missing from the van. Investigators said that only two staff members were present with the driver, adding that they believe the driver had executed the robbery on the basis of prior planning. They said Hussain had been a security guard at the company for the past one year.

According to District City SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz, besides the over Rs25 million in cash, the police have also recovered gold worth Rs210,000 from Gul, Noor, Saif and Salman. The Mithadar police had registered FIR No. 280/21 under Section 408/34 on the complaint of Shaikh Shoaib, regional manager operations of the Security Organising System (SOS) Pakistan, against company driver Shah and his accomplices.

The complainant said he had been an employee of SOS for the past 11 years, adding that on August 6, Rs200 million was given by Al Falah Bank’s II Chundrigar Road branch, and that the amount had arrived at the SOS branch office on Tariq Road.

The FIR reads that cash van driver Shah, CC Muhammad Saleem and ACC Nadeem had left the branch with Rs200 million of Al Falah Bank to deposit it to the State Bank of Pakistan on August 9.

One more cash van was dispatched to Al Falah Bank’s head office on II Chundrigar Road at around 9am that day. They deposited 13 sealed cash bags, and during this Saleem also took four cash boxes inside the bank, but the bank returned the bags, so he again put them into the vehicle.

Saleem again went inside the bank to take the cash, the bank gave him Rs5 million to be deposited in the bank’s West Wharf branch, so after putting Rs5 million into the vehicle, he again went inside the bank to take a receipt, and when he returned from the bank, he found that both the cash vans had disappeared.

Besides all the cash, the driver and his accomplices also made off with two pistols, a repeater, and a camera and DVR system installed in the vehicle. When Saleem phoned Shah, the driver said he would be there shortly, but he did not return. Later, Saleem informed the bank about the disappearance of the driver and the cash van.

The driver’s mobile phone was switched off when the bank staff tried calling him. The vehicle was later found parked in Miskeen Gali in the old city area with the help of the vehicle tracker. The driver, cash, weapons, camera and DVR — all were missing from the van.

Police have already questioned the driver’s father, who said he and his family do not have any ties with the man because the family had kicked him out of the house some six months ago. Police said the prime suspect hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Investigators said that only two staff members were present with the driver, adding that they believe the driver had executed the robbery on the basis of prior planning. They said the prime suspect had been a security guard at the company for the past one year.

Police said the company’s procedure of moving cash was wrong and the strength was also too short. They said the company’s recruitment process for hiring security guards was also wrong, since the driver himself had brought in a verification form and submitted it to the company.