Bengaluru: The city police, on Tuesday, arrested the ATM cash ferrying van driver Dominic Selvaraj Roy near Tin Factory in K.R Puram, where he had come to meet a distant relative early Tuesday.
The cops had used Gerald, a distant relative of Dominic as bait, whom the accused had contacted to arrange for a hidden shelter for him when he reached the city. Gerald was a matchmaker and had helped the couple get married, the police added.
Gerald was nabbed by policemen in plain clothes, who were deployed at various places, as they suspected he was in touch with Dominic, but they did not recover any cash from him. Gerald had allegedly taken Rs 12.92 lakhs and repaid his loans to various people based in Chennai, Salem and in Bengaluru. The police said the rest of cash was used for travel and other expenses.
A senior police officer said that four teams were formed to track down Dominic and they kept a close watch on his friends and relatives and always questioned them if Dominic had contacted them.
On Monday, Dominic called one of his distant relatives, Gerald, seeking help to find a shelter in Bengaluru from Salem where he had taken shelter after dropping his wife and son in the city on Sunday night.
Based on our advice Gerald asked him to come and a team of policemen in plainclothes waited for him. He was caught at around 12.30-1 am near an under-construction building in Tin Factory in K.R. Puram as soon as he alighted from the bus and was bundled to the police station. On Tuesday morning, his was formally arrested.
Meticulous plan goes awry
Investigations revealed that the couple planned the theft meticulously well in advance and even disposed the household articles days before the actual plan was executed, the police said.
The plan was to repay the debts and start a new life afresh with the looted money with the help of their select relatives. However, their plans went awry, when the police started keeping tabs on each and every relatives and friends and warned them of legal action, if they were found helping the couple. This scared the relatives from helping them.
What happened after theft?
As per the plan, Dominic tried to fill in all of Rs 1.37 crore inside one box, but he could not after he broke open the padlocks of both the boxes. He filled in one of the box with as much cash as he could and that was Rs 92 lakh with which he walked home that evening. Evelyn and their son were ready and had packed their luggage. The family took an auto-rickshaw to reach Shivajinagar, had dinner at a hotel and then started their journey to evade the police.
The family went to Shantinagar bus stand and left for Chittoor and then to Vellore. From Vellore, they travelled by another bus to Chennai and halted there for a day. From Chennai they again took a bus to Krishnagiri and then to Coimbatore and from Coimbatore they took a bus to Potta in Chalakudy in Kerala, and stayed at the religious retreat centre for the night.
The couple then decided to go to Vijayawada after calling Evelyn’s maternal aunt, identified as Margaret alias Maggie. The couple reached Maggie’s house the next night and as she got to know of everything, she was reluctant to allow the couple to stay.
It was then the couple decided to come to Bengaluru and called one Nancy Prince, a lawyer who mediated their marital discord a year ago, the police said. The couple had initially asked her advice on how to secure a bail too, the police stated.
On Sunday night, Evelyn was picked up by the Banaswadi police, and early Tuesday Dominic was arrested. Police recovered Rs 79.08 lakh from Evelyn after she was picked up near Kullappa circle. While Dominic fled to Salem with the rest of the money to meet some people whom he had owed money, a senior police officer said.
Earlier attempts
Dominic who had prepared a sketch for the plan had attempted to escape with the cash when he had gone to Channapattana to receive and deposit cash from banks. Dominic had informed Evelyn to get ready before leaving, but on that day, the gunman stayed with him in the van all the time and he had to call off his operation. He also called his wife to inform that the plan was postponed, said an officer.
Tracking couple was difficult
Though the couple was not using mobile phones and were only calling their relatives and friends from coin-booth or landline phones, the police managed to tap their calls to the relatives and friends to determine their locations.
Though the police could locate the movements using the Call Detail Records, tower locations and CCTV of the public places and alert their counterparts, the couple moved away from one spot to evade the police. The police created a fear psychosis among them, which led them to stop running further, a senior police officer stated. “The accused have been arrested and now the efforts are on to recover the money,” said M.N. Anucheth, DCP (West Division)
