How ATM service provider employees plotted Jorhat heist

A Correspondent

Jorhat, Oct 31: Jorhat police on Saturday recovered Rs 1.11 crore looted from an ATM cash refill van in Teok. The recovery was made from the house of one Prasanta Bhuyan of Choladhara in Jorhat after a day-long search operation.  The cash was looted by armed miscreants from an ATM cash carrying vehicle of SIS Prosegur Company near Lakhibari village on the road connecting Teok with kachari on the night of October 29.

The miscreants had allegedly fired three rounds to stop the vehicle and later decamped with the cash trunk after holding the occupants in the vehicle at gunpoint. The miscreants also allegedly took away the double barrel rifle of the company appointed security guard.

But investigations revealed a different story altogether - the robbery was plotted by employees of the ATM service provider SIS Prosegur.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range) Satyen Gogoi said the remaining Rs 62 lakh is yet to be recovered.

"We have so far arrested two drivers, two gunmen and the custodian of the vehicle - all employees of SIS Prosegur - and we are on the lookout of Prasanta Bhuyan who is absconding," he said.

The DIG said the robbery was planned beforehand and executed deep inside the Gibbon Reserve Forest and a drama was ected later to befool the police.

"As informed earlier, there was no white Tata Sumo involved in the incident. Instead, a Tata Vista vehicle was used. We have already seized the vehicle and along with a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle and the Prosegur vehicle. The ATM refill van was plying from Mariani to kachari. While the journey from Mariani to Gibbon should hardly take 8 minutes, the GPRS tracing system showed that the vehicle was at Gibbon for at least half an hour which raised suspicion," the DIG said.

The pistol the gang used has been recovered from the Puthinodi river on the Teok kachari connecting road while the rifle has been recovered from a stream near the Gibbon sanctuary.

A case has been registered against two security officials of the vehicle identified as Romen Bhuyan and Rajen Gogoi, ATM operators Partho Pratim Saikia and Prasanta th and driver Bishnu Prasad Das. Partho Pratim Saikia stays in the rented house of Prasanta Bhuyan. Meanwhile, the police has launched a massive hunt for Prasanta Bhuyan.