Six more suspects held in cash van heist case

Police arrested six more persons suspected of involvement in the Rs205 million cash van heist on II Chundrigar Road. The police also claimed to have recovered Rs6.6 million from their possession.

According to District City SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz, six more suspects involved in the biggest robbery have been arrested, and two key suspects –- Hussain Badshah and his father Niaz Badshah -- were among those caught.

The arrested persons included Zulfiqar Shah’s sister Fazila and uncle Gul Hussain. The police recovered Rs1.9 million from Niaz Badshah, Rs1.5 million from Gul Hassan and Rs2 million from Fazila, while no recovery was made from the remaining three suspects.

So far, police investigators have arrested 12 suspects and recovered over Rs30 million from their possession. They said gold worth Rs220,000 and a car had also been seized. The police are questioning the suspects about the whereabouts of the prime suspect, van driver Hussain Shah.

The main suspect has been either hiding in his ancestral district of Orakzai or had fled elsewhere, said the SSP. Earlier four days ago, around six suspects were arrested thus far. The police believe that 10 to 12 persons were involved in the heist and raids are being carried out for the suspects on the run. The police had earlier arrested two brothers, Naimat Ali and Asad Ali, accused of facilitation. The brothers claim they had rented out the high-roof minivan used as the getaway car in the crime to Hussain Shah, who told them he was going on a picnic.

Last month, the driver of a private security company’s cash van had fled with Rs205 from outside a private bank on II Chundrigar Road. The van was later found abandoned in Miskeen Gali, off Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan Road.

The case against Hussain Shah and his accomplices was lodged at the Mithadar Police Station under Section 408 read with 34 [pertaining to criminal breach of trust by an employee] of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the security company’s Regional Operations Manager Shaikh Shoaib.

The complainant told the police he had been employed at Security Organising System (SOS) Pakistan for the past 11 years. He said that on August 9, Rs200 million sent by the bank on II Chundrigar Road was dispatched to the SOS Pakistan’s office on Tariq Road. The cash van driver, Hussain, and two other employees, Muhammad Saleem and Nadeem, left the branch to deposit the sum at the State Bank of Pakistan, stated the complainant.

Three more remanded

A judicial magistrate on Friday remanded three more suspects in the custody of police for interrogation in a case pertaining to the so-called biggest money heist of the year in which a cash van driver ran away with over Rs200 million.

The investigation officer of the case presented Zulfiqar, Javed Ahmed and Shahzad before a judicial magistrate of the South district, seeking their physical remand for two weeks for questioning about their involvement in the heist.

The IO said the men were arrested on the charge of facilitating the heist and their remand was required to investigate the matter and arrest the absconding suspects, including the main suspect Shah Hussain. The judge however allowed the IO to keep the suspects in his custody for three days only and sought a progress report regarding the investigation at the next hearing.