Inside the 7-minute Bengaluru robbery: How Rs 7.11 crore went missing on a flyover india news

Last updated:November 20, 2025, 10:45 IST

There was no report of aggression. No drawn weapons. No forceful instructions. He opened the back, headed straight for the cash bags and shifted them with a clear plan.

On November 19, the dairy circle in Bengaluru continued its usual rhythm of impatience. Cars cut lanes, bikes got stuck in cracks, buses slowed down on flyovers.

Among them was a CMS cash van that was making its regular trip to load at an ATM near South End Circle, which is about 5 kilometers from Diary Circle. Rs 7.11 crore were filled in sealed bags inside the van. Nothing was known about the vehicle. It seemed as if he had walked this road hundreds of times before.

There was no clue that the next 7 minutes would unfold in one of the most perfect cash van robberies ever seen in Bengaluru.

The van that stopped at the wrong time

As the van moved forward on the flyover, an Innova came in front of it. The signal came from inside the Innova, drawing a wave of confidence. The people traveling in the Innova claimed that they were officials of the Reserve Bank of India.

The staff present in the CMS vehicle did not argue. A city accustomed to frequent checks and official stops often complied quickly. The van slowed down and stopped. And without any shouting the robbery started.

A robbery that went off without much fanfare

According to the employees, people did not waste time. There was no report of aggression. No drawn weapons. No forceful instructions. He opened the back, headed straight for the cash bags, and moved them with a clarity that suggested planning.

Then the details that came in changed the investigation. The men took the digital video recorder from the van, erasing the only direct evidence of the incident.

In less than 7 minutes, the Innova was back in regular traffic with Rs 7.11 crore and a DVR which was supposed to capture every second of the operation.

A police station turned into a war room

By evening, Siddapura police station turned into the center of investigation. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh himself arrived and stayed there till late night. His presence indicated the seriousness of the matter.

Driver Binod, custodian Aftab and gunmen Rajanna and Tammaiah were repeatedly interrogated. Their accounts matched. Same van. Same Innova. The same people are claiming the authority of RBI. The same timeline that felt very fast and very clear.

Search begins over missing footage

With the DVR gone, the investigation turned to digital forensics. The officials confiscated the phones of all the CMS staff present in the van. Every call detail, deleted image, message, WhatsApp chat and location ping was examined to understand whether any information was leaked before the robbery.

During the incident, tower dump of all mobile phones active around the Dairy Circle flyover was carried out. The task is big, but important. Investigators now have to examine which devices remained with the van, which moved away, and which unusual numbers appeared in the area at the exact time the robbery occurred.

finding an escape route

Another group of police teams concentrated on the roads leading out of the city. An initial suspicion is that the gang might have fled Bengaluru within 1 hour of the robbery. This triggered a coordinated response on key evacuation routes.

Check posts at Hoskote, Hosur, Tumakuru Road, Kanakapura and Mysuru Road were alerted. Traffic police and local police jointly monitored the vehicles. Every Innova that crossed the toll gate during that hour was given the green flag. The list of registration numbers, colors and time is now being analyzed and matched with the CCTV footage.

Toll gate cameras, which usually check routine traffic violations, have become an important part of the investigation. Officers are reviewing the footage frame by frame, looking for any Innova that may be different in terms of timing or direction.

question of internal support

While the van crew has cooperated, the investigation is also probing whether insider information was shared before the robbery. Police are investigating whether the employees had unusual contacts or patterns in the days before the incident.

Reviewing the activities of employees from leaving home to the time of the robbery is now an important part of the investigation. Even a small leak of time or route could have helped the gang plan the stop with such precision.

7 minutes that created a stir in the entire city

Several police teams including the City Crime Branch are now involved. Clues have reportedly surfaced, although nothing has been officially confirmed. The Commissioner is closely monitoring the investigation.

What remains is a crime defined by silence and motion. A van stopped on a busy flyover. Men who claimed authority. Picked up the cash bag without any fear. Removed a DVR to erase the timeline. And before anyone could realize what had happened, an Innova sped away from the city.

Rs 7.11 crore. 7 minutes. no video. A city is still trying to trace the path of a gang that moved as if they knew every second of the path ahead.