Over Rs200 million looted in Karachi as employee drives off with cash van

A driver allegedly looted more than Rs200 million from a cash van of a security company on Karachi's main I.I. Chundrigar Road, it emerged on Wednesday, as police said they were probing the "unusual" incident from different aspects.

Mithadar police’s Special Investigation Officer (SIO) Chaudhry Tariq said the driver of the van was involved in looting the huge cash amount on August 9. The officer said police were investigating the case from different angles, but did not elaborate.

The officer admitted that no concrete progress had been made in the case so far and efforts were still underway to arrest the driver.

According to the first information report (FIR) lodged by a regional operations manager of the security company, Shoaib Sheikh, the cash van was transporting over Rs200m from Tariq Road to the State Bank of Pakistan located on I.I. Chundrigar Road, the "Pakistani Wall Street".

The company's guard, Mohammed Saleem, went inside the bank to take the receipt. When he returned, he saw that the cash van was no longer parked outside. He called the van driver, Husain Shah, who initially informed him that he would come back within a short time, according to the contents of the FIR.

However, when the guard called again, the driver had switched off his cell phone. The van was traced and found on Queen’s Road through the company's tracking system. During inspection, it was found that along with the cash, the weapons, a camera and a DVR were also missing from the van.

Police have registered a case against the driver and launched an investigation into the alleged theft.

Last week, two guards of a money changer were shot dead in Buffer Zone and a worker was wounded by suspected robbers over resistance. They took away around Rs1m from the victims and escaped. The driver of the van remained safe.

Police had claimed that the standard operating procedures (SOPs) were not followed for transferring the huge cash amount from a bank to the money changer's office.

from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2VLfDlT