Ghaziabad: Three armed men fired several rounds and robbed a cash-laden van from outside an ATM kiosk near a petrol pump in the Crossings Republik area on Wednesday afternoon. Police recovered the abandoned van on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway near Masuri police station, about 10 km away, but by then the accused had fled with around Rs 20 lakh it was carrying.According to police, five employees of India1, a financial institution, had left their office that morning carrying Rs 25 lakh to load into ATMs along their route. By 1 pm, they had loaded cash into more than 3 machines and stopped near an HP petrol pump in Crossings Republik to load cash into another machine.Like clockwork, four staffers went to the ATM kiosk with cash, roughly 50 metres from the van, and the driver sat inside the van. Once they had finished loading cash at the ATM, the staffers sat outside the kiosk for lunch. In a matter of minutes, the three men approached the parked vehicle. “They pointed weapons at the van driver and ordered him to open the gate. When he refused, one of them fired in the air. They overpowered him, threw him to the ground, and drove off with the van,” DCP (city) Dhawal Jaiswal said.The employees immediately dialled 112 to alert cops. Police alerted all nearby stations, including those in Noida and Delhi, and shared the van’s number plate. The vehicle was traced to the DME near Masuri within 30 minutes. The criminals had by then emptied it.Jaiswal said it could be a planned heist. “The accused appear to have conducted reconnaissance over several days, tracking the van’s route and crew. We are also examining the possible involvement of employees,” he said.A senior officer noted that the robbery occurred during the employees’ lunch break, shortly after they had finished loading cash at the ATM, suggesting the assailants had monitored the team’s movements and timed the strike carefully.Police have sought financial records from India1 to determine the exact amount looted. While the Rs 20 lakh figure is based on initial estimates, the final figure will be confirmed after the company’s accounts are examined, officials said.Eight teams have been formed to track down the accused. An FIR is being registered, Jaiswal said.
