Bengaluru ATM cash van heist: City Police arrest 9, recover Rs 7.1 crore

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Nov 26, 2025: With the arrest of nine people, including a police constable, involved in the ATM van robbery case, the Bengaluru city police have made a total 98.6% recovery of ₹7.1 crore out of ₹7.11 crore that was robbed on November 19, 2025.

City Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh appreciated the team’s work for cracking the case and awarded certificate of appreciation to all the 200 police personnel involved in the operation.

The accused have been taken into custody and further investigations are on to recover the rest of the money from them, he said.

It was a meticulously-planned robbery executed badly, an officer part of the operation said.

A chase through Hyderabad

While the police faced many challenges in the case, the toughest part was the arrest of the trio who had hired a cab to Hyderabad and used the mobile number of the cab driver to misguide the police, the official said.

The accused, identified as Rakesh, brother of one of the masterminds, Ravi, and his two associates Naveen and Nelson used mobile phones borrowed from the cab driver and shopkeepers to contact their family members in the city. Though the police identified the accused and began tracking them down through call record details, they intercepted the cab driver on the outskirts of Hyderabad based on the CDR verification.

It was a race against time for the police who drove private vehicles to Hyderabad in hot pursuit of the accused. Based on the information given by the cab driver, the police, within an hour, reached the lodge where the accused had stayed, but by then they had already checked out.

Meanwhile, the accused went to a roadside juice centre for a refreshment and borrowed the phone of the shop owner to make a call to their parents. The police got a tip-off from the technical team in the city, who were tracking the movements of the accused and rushed to the juice centre with the help of local police. By then, however, the accused had left and the juice centre owner confirmed the presence of trio and told the police that they had borrowed his phone to make a call.

The police, based on his information, dispersed in different directions to continue tracking the accused before nabbing them at the Nampally Metro Station in Hyderabad.

The accused confessed to the police that they came to know about the arrest of their associates and decided to return to the city and had even purchased bus tickets to Bengaluru.

However, before boarding the bus, the police team tracked them down and recovered a total of ₹54.7 lakh which they had carried in their backpacks.

Older murder case

One of the prime accused, Ravi — son of a former army man and owner of a travel agency — arrested by the police revealed during the questioning that he was involved in the murder case of a rowdy-sheeter reported in Varthur police station limits in May 2018. He was absconding since then and the police had failed to track him down until he was arrested by the Siddapura police for the ATM van robbery case.

Ravi, according to the police, was part of the rival gang which hacked 33-year-old Challa Kumar on the night of May 17, 2018, at Kodathi Gate.

The prime accused, Nagaraj, had professional rivalry with Challa Kumar who was a rowdy-sheeter in Banasawadi having over half a dozen criminal cases. While the police had arrested all the six accused, Ravi who was part of the murder plan, execution and also providing logistics to the accused, was not arrested.