Without a trace

The cash loading companies, which the banks depend on for filling up their ATMs across the city, seem to be flouting all the norms and directions given to them by the police. Two recent incidents in Chennai show how unsafe public money is as the agencies appoint drivers and staff members without checking their criminal antecedents. In the first incident reported on August 31, this year, a group had duped the driver of the cash carrying vehicle, which was filling up ATMs of IOB in Flower Bazaar area and decamped with Rs. 26 lakh. Police had later arrested two persons, and one among them turned out to be a former driver with the firm Logicash who planned the heist with precision. 

In the most recent incident on October 3, driver of a cash carrying vehicle, again attached to the same cash loading agency, escaped with Rs. 1.18 crore belonging to Bank of Baroda. The vehicle was on its way to fill up ATMs in Tiruverkadu area and the driver managed to dupe the gunman and escaped with the cash and vehicle. Now police have got evidence to prove that it was not a one-man operation but rather a wellplanned group heist. 

“What is alarming is that such criminal elements could plan and manage to get employment with these firms. That shows that the agencies involved are not running any background check when they recruit their staff,” a senior police official said. According to experts, the heist at Tiruverkadu could not have been carried out by a first-time offender. “There seems to have been so much of planning that went into the crime. All the addresses he had given with the travels and with Logicash turned out to be fake. We even do not know what his original name is,” another official said. 

There are strict guidelines as to what must be followed when money is transferred from bank branches to ATMs. After the Flower Bazaar incident, the city police had called for a meeting of the cash loading agencies and had cautioned them to follow these guidelines. “Representatives of about 18 cash transaction agencies had attended the meeting and we had given them clear instructions. We had instructed them to have proper GPS system on vehicles, to have properly armed guards inside and also to follow the RBI guidelines regarding transport of money,” another senior police official said. 

Officials said it is mandatory on the part of the agencies to run a background check on their prospective employees to find out their criminal antecedents. However, this has not been done properly by these agencies. “In most of the cases, the vehicle has an old gunman with an outdated, basic rifle, two to three staff  besides the driver. The staff carry the money in portions from the vehicle to each ATM during which the vehicle remains unguarded. We have seen the security guard happily sitting in the front seat when the staff go to fill up the tellers and cash remaining unguarded in the rear portion of the vehicle,” the  official added.