Armed men posing as officials from India's central bank have robbed a vehicle transporting 70 million rupees ($800,000; £600,000) in the southern state of Karnataka, police say.
A massive operation has been launched to find the men who robbed the van in the heart of Bengaluru city in daylight.
The robbery occurred on Wednesday afternoon. Six men in an SUV stopped a cash transport van on a busy road as it was moving money between bank branches, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told the BBC.
The van was transporting a driver, a cash custodian, and two armed security guards.
Mr. Singh states the robbers claimed to be officials from the Reserve Bank of India, instructing the van crew to verify documents. They told the cash custodian and guards to leave their weapons in the van and enter the SUV, while the driver continued driving with the cash.
After following the van for a few kilometers, the gang forced the driver out and transferred the cash at gunpoint before fleeing. The area had limited CCTV coverage, and police suspect they may have used multiple vehicles.
The cash transport company has since filed a police complaint. The SUV used in the heist bore a fake number plate and was marked “Government of India,” according to a police source.
Authorities are also looking into whether any employees from the transport company were involved. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the police have recovered the SUV, but Home Minister G Parameshwara noted it’s uncertain which vehicle the robbers used to escape.
“It was verified that they changed vehicles and moved the money,” he stated, expressing confidence in the police's ability to resolve the case quickly.
This robbery follows a recent trend of high-profile bank thefts in Karnataka, including a May incident where 59kg of gold, valued at over 532 million rupees, was stolen using a duplicate locker key.
