In yet another heist in the metropolis, the driver of a private security company's cash van took away over Rs200 million from outside a bank located on II Chundrigar Road, it emerged on Wednesday.
The regional manager operations of the company, Shaikh Shoaib, who is a complainant in the FIR lodged at Mithadar Police Station stated that the suspected robber and his accomplices took cash, two pistols, one repeater gun, a camera and the DVR system installed in the vehicle as they fled.
The FIR states that the cash van of the private security company had left the company's head office in PECHS to deliver cash, which had to be deposited at the State Bank of Pakistan.
However, after the security guard, namely Muhammad Saleem, went to the bank on II Chundrigar Road to deposit the receipt, he found the vehicle missing and the driver was nowhere to be seen. Saleem called the driver, Hussain Shah, who said he would return shortly. The security guard waited a while but the driver did not return and eventually Saleem informed the bank, stated the FIR.
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The complaint mentioned that when the bank staff called the driver on his mobile phone they found the number switched off. The missing vehicle was later found in Miskeen Gali of the old city area through a tracker installed in the van. The driver and prime suspect, Shah, was gone, however, and so was the cash.
The police lodged the FIR on Shoaib's complaint nominating Shah and other unidentified individuals as his accomplices.
During initial investigation, the police questioned the driver's father but were told that the family had disowned Shah around six months ago.
According to the police, the prime suspect's mobile phone is switched off but they have obtained his call data to make headway in the case. The police said Shah hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and that it was likely that he had other accomplices assisting him in the robbery.
The police also detained the guards of the security company for questioning and also took the statements of supervisors employed in the company. The police investigators said that only two staff members had accompanied the driver.
The prime suspect had been employed as a security guard at the company around a year ago, said the police, adding that Mithadar SHO Raja Zulfiqar Haider was also found negligent as the investigation unfolded.
Officials said police was deployed in the area from where the van driver fled with the cash but the SHO had removed the cops deputed there and the van driver benefited from this.
Earlier this month, armed robbers had opened fire at a cash van in the remits of Taimuria Police Station killing three persons inside the van and taking away with gold, cash and other valuables.
Fatal resistance
Meanwhile, the cashier of a petrol pump was killed when he attempted to resist a robbery bid in Ahsanabad area of Superhighway. The perpetrators took away with Rs52,000 cash after opening fire at the cashier.
The deceased, identified as Shakeel, 45, was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
The police said that around half a dozen armed men riding motorcycles had reached the petrol pump. They tried to steal the cash but the cashier resisted, said the police.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2021.
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