Cops had to turn to the stolen car’s FASTag records, where they discovered that the automobile was driving in the FASTag lane of every toll plaza it passed through. That is how Bengaluru rural cops nabbed highway robbers who stole Rs 1 Cr using FASTag.
Kodali Sreedharan, a notorious dacoit in Kerala, was on the verge of committing a high-stakes theft on the outskirts of Bengaluru for around Rs 1 crore. A team of five employees from a private financial firm were traveling near Madanayakanahlli, just outside Bengaluru, in March, hauling Rs 1 crore in cash.
Their vehicle was abruptly stopped by seven armed robbers commanded by Sreedharan, whose modus operandi is highway robberies, as they were driving. The Bengaluru police had been looking for the criminals for more than a month when they discovered a critical hint in the car’s FASTag data.
According to a story in the Times Of India, on March 11, the firm’s senior accountant — who had been amongst those in the car at the time of the event — claimed that Sreedharan and his crew attacked them with weapons on the highway. The group then fled the scene with the money and the employees’ expensive personal goods in the very same vehicle.
On Monday, April 25, Bengaluru police revealed that the offenders’ identities had been tracked across state borders using the victims’ car’s FASTag data. The automobile was discovered discarded at Hosur after the crime, and the authorities resorted to reviewing footage from over 250 CCTV cameras along the Madanayakanahalli to Ernakulam expressway. When that did not work, the cops turned to the car’s FASTag records, where they discovered that the automobile was driving in the FASTag lane of every toll plaza it passed through. “We started sourcing the FASTag details of the vehicle and landed at the doorstep of the accused,” an officer informed TOI.
Under the leadership of ADSP Lakshmi Ganesh, DySP (Nelamangala sub-division) KC Gautam, and Madanayakanahalli police inspector BS Manjunath, two special squads were established, who discovered that the crew had passed two state borders and escaped to Kerala. PK Rajiv (48), Vishnulal (26), TC Sanal (34), Akhil (28), Jaseen Faris (28), P Sanaf (33), S Sameer (31), Sainulla Abidi (21), AP Shafeeq, and Ramsheed alias Muttaf (25) are among the ten people who were arrested.
Nevertheless, Bengaluru Rural SP K Vamsi Krishna has stated that the prime suspect in the case, Kodali Sreedharan, remains at large. According to cops, approximately around Rs 90 lakh of the stolen funds is still with him.
The culprits had also trailed the employees’ vehicles in a leased vehicle, according to the police. The individual who operated the car rental, on the other hand, said he was unaware of the crime but did give the criminals’ identification and also personal details.
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N’er-do-wells…. from the greatest to the least – – the Game is up my friend! shalom, al jenkins