Bengaluru man in shock after his car number appears in ATM van heist: ‘Why did they choose number of my Swift?’
Gangadhar was shocked to see his Swift’s number flashed across screens and was left wondering how criminals had picked his number.
A 78-year-old resident of Bengaluru was taken by surprise when a police officer arrived at his home asking about his car. Gangadhar, who lives in the city and runs a small business, did not realise that his vehicle’s registration number had just been linked to a major daytime robbery.
Later that day, television channels broadcast the number KA 03 NC 8052, identifying it as the registration of a Toyota Innova allegedly used in the ₹7.11-crore ATM cash van heist. Gangadhar was shocked to see his Swift’s number flashed across screens and was left wondering how criminals had picked his number from the thousands of vehicles in the city, as per a report by The Indian Express (IE).
According to police, the gang involved in the robbery used an Innova with a forged number plate matching Gangadhar’s car. The suspects had posed as officials from the Income Tax Department and the Reserve Bank of India before stealing the cash from an ATM logistics vehicle.
“While it is a serious offence and amounts to the misuse of the number, what really surprises me is that my number was chosen from the numbers of millions of vehicles in Bengaluru. This was the first time that a police officer had visited my home. He was very soft spoken,” Gangadhar told IE.
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Officers later traced the registration number to Gangadhar’s home and visited him for verification. The elderly man, who previously worked in Dubai before starting his business in Bengaluru, said he is still trying to come to terms with how his car’s number was misused in such a large-scale crime.
Just two days after the audacious ₹7.11 crore daylight robbery shook Bengaluru, investigators have uncovered a stunning possible insider link, and detained two men, one of whom is a serving police constable.
The development marks the first major breakthrough in a case that has gripped the city since Wednesday’s brazen loot of an ATM cash refill van.
According to a Times Now report, a constable from the Govindarajanagar police station and a former employee of CMS Info System Limited, the company that manages the robbed ATM van, were picked up for questioning.
The ex-employee, originally from Kerala, had resigned from CMS recently. Investigators believe he had grown close to the constable over the last six months, a bond strong enough, police suspect, to hatch the elaborate robbery, the report added.
The fact that the van belonged to his former employer has only deepened suspicions of an insider-driven operation.
The turning point came from analysing mobile tower data from the robbery location. Police teams mapped active mobile numbers in the area and discovered that the constable and the former CMS employee exchanged multiple calls during the heist. Call Detail Records further revealed consistent communication in the days leading up to the crime.
Despite immediate border alerts and vehicle checks on Wednesday afternoon, the robbers had already slipped out. Investigators now believe the gang is likely hiding in Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh.
