Five persons including the custodian who was travelling with the bank’s ATM cash van were arrested by Vasai police on Thursday for looting cash from the ATM of HDFC Bank. Police recovered as much as '18 lakh from custodian, Swapnil Jogle (26). Earlier, police had arrested his wife Purva and brother Sagar from Ratnagiri and recovered '2.82 lakh from them. The hunt is on for the remaining '30 lakh. Police suspect Mr Jogle may have committed a crime in the past.
The incident occurred in Kaman area of Vasai Road late in the evening on Monday. Scientific Securities Services of Bhandup handles the work of securing ATMs and cash vans of HDFC bank in the area. Whenever the cash van travels with money, a security guard from the said company travels with the van along with a custodian and security guard from the bank. On Monday evening, one cash van left from the bank to supply money in ATMs. At about 6.30 pm, this van supplied money in the Kaman area ATM after which, it was supposed to head for Chinchoti. In between this, Mr Jogle, asked the van to stop saying that a few other employees are coming for some money calculations which is why they need to fill money in the bags. Posing as being on call with the auditor, Mr Jogle started moving from the place with bags full of money. Later, when the others could not find him, they tried calling him but his phone had been switched off by then. A police complaint was filed.
The cyber cell traced Mr Jogle’s mobile location to Pune. Police sources said they have arrested two more employees of this company for the ATM heist. Officials suspect Mr Jogle has committed a similar crime in the past and are questioning bank workers to check how no one noticed this act earlier.
