Life in FASTag Lane Takes Its Toll on Highway Robbers: Gang Caught after Rs 1-Crore Gold Money Heist

With each passing day, digitalisation is not just easing people’s lives but also helping in areas like law enforcement and catching criminals. For instance, who would have thought that FASTag for collecting highway tolls could have helped cops nab a gang responsible for a Rs 1-crore robbery?

At around 5.50 am on March 11, a group of men with machetes and other weapons attacked a vehicle with five people who were on the way to Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. They were from a finance firm and were returning after collecting cash from various places. The attack took place in Madanayakanahalli near NICE road junction on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The firm’s senior accountant J Franklin, who was in the vehicle during the incident, stated, “We were attacked by people with machetes, rods, and they smashed the glass. They then pulled us out, snatched our phones and money. They drove our vehicle along with their car.”

Initial investigation revealed that the gang of robbers was following the victims all the way from Hubballi, which is over 400 km from Bengaluru. Apparently, they had studied the victims well and knew that were in Hubballi to collect a hefty sum of money from gold traders.

Bengaluru Rural police worked on the case in different teams. They first identified the car of the attackers and followed the trail. The gang had dumped the victims’ vehicle on the way. The car sported a Karnataka registration number while passing Chamarajanagar and entering Tamil Nadu. But while tracing it there, police found the number plate seemed to have changed. Then, cops checked the CCTV footage along the way. They found the car but the number plate had changed again before the vehicle crossed borders and entered Kerala.

The police then noticed that the vehicle had passed through FASTag lanes in every toll gate while crossing borders. They then tracked the vehicle via FASTag details and knocked on the right door in Kerala. 10 members of the crew are now arrested.

“The gang is led by Kodali Shreedharan, who is famous for robbing hawala operators on highways. We have arrested Sainulla Habidi (21), Rajiv PK (48), Sanal TC (34), Vishnulal (26), Akhil (28), Sanaf P (33), Jaseen Faris (28), Sameer S (31), Shafeeq AP, and Ramshid alias Muttaf (25). We have seized Rs 9.7 lakh and two sports utility vehicles from them. Shreedharan is missing and we think he has the remaining Rs 90 lakh with him. We are confident of catching him soon,” said K Vamsi Krishna, superintendent of police, Bengaluru Rural.

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