Bengaluru Police have launched one of the city’s most intensive manhunts following Tuesday’s brazen Rs 7 crore daylight robbery of a CMS cash management van, with growing evidence pointing toward a possible inside job orchestrated with chilling precision. Investigators have subjected the four employees on board — driver Vinod, custodian Aftab, armed gunman Rajanna, and staffer Thammayya — to marathon interrogations lasting several hours. All four have provided near-identical statements denying any involvement, yet their mobile phones have been seized for exhaustive forensic examination of photographs, deleted files, call logs, and message histories to detect any trace of collusion.

Authorities are conducting a comprehensive tower dump analysis to map every mobile device active near the crime scene at the time of the heist, cross-referencing numbers against the crew’s contacts to uncover suspicious communication. Additionally, police are meticulously scrutinising recently resigned CMS employees, newly hired personnel, individuals flagged for irregular behaviour, and anyone with prior criminal records, as the robbers demonstrated intimate knowledge of the van’s schedule, route, cash loading patterns, and security weaknesses that only an insider could possess.

City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh has personally taken charge, confirming that three Deputy Commissioners of Police and one Joint Commissioner are leading dedicated teams working around the clock. Checkposts have been established across Bengaluru and its outskirts, while more than 50 officers are conducting sweeping search operations along the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, particularly in Hosakote and Hosur. CCTV footage retrieved from toll plazas clearly shows the getaway Toyota Innova bearing fake number plates travelling from Old Madras Road toward Electronic City, providing crucial leads that are now being pursued aggressively.

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Preliminary accounts from the cash van staff indicate the robbers operated in two highly coordinated groups — one to overpower the crew after posing as RBI officials, and another to swiftly transfer the cash and flee. Investigators noted that the criminals communicated primarily via WhatsApp voice calls and spoke fluent Kannada, further narrowing the suspect pool. Serious questions remain unanswered: why the armed gunman never fired a single shot despite clear threat, and why there was a significant delay before police were alerted, gaps that have intensified scrutiny on potential security lapses or deliberate complicity.

With the exact amount looted still awaiting final verification and the perpetrators remaining at large, Bengaluru Police have declared the case their highest priority. As forensic reports and surveillance analysis continue to trickle in, the investigation is increasingly centred on exposing whether trusted insiders betrayed the system, enabling one of the boldest and most sophisticated cash van heists the city has ever witnessed.

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