Bengaluru: The city police found the abandoned cash ferrying vehicle along with Rs 45 lakh in cash from Vasanthnagar on Wednesday late night, after the van driver, Dominic Selvaraj Roy, drove away the vehicle and disappeared with Rs 92 lakh, the police said on Thursday.

Hours after Dominic escaped with the van containing cash of Rs 1.37 crore on Wednesday afternoon, the police traced the van lying abandoned in front of an under-construction building in Vasanth Nagar. The vehicle was locked and the police also recovered a loaded gun along with few live cartridges of the security guard Chaman Lal.

Dominic Selvaraj Roy
Dominic Selvaraj Roy

According to the police, the modified Tata 207 vehicle that was parked on 1st cross in Vasanth Nagar was spotted by police patrol during their night rounds. The patrol team informed the investigating officials and a police team rushed to the spot and broke open the lock to find Rs 44 lakh in Rs 2000 denomination and Rs 1 lakh in Rs 100 denomination. The accused had fled with the rest of money, the police added. “It was a well planned robbery,” a senior police officer said adding that the accused probably had escaped along with his wife and 12-year-old son the same night. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Division) M.N. Anucheth said that Dominic was staying along with his parents in Lingarajpuram and had shifted his house two months ago before his wife, who worked in Dubai, joined him recently.

The police had questioned his parents and relatives, but his wife and the child were missing since Wednesday, the DCP stated. Police inquiries revealed that Dominic was working as a driver with the company for the last two years. Recently, he quit his job for sometime, but resumed duty on November 1.

Police found that Dominic’s employer Secure Transit company had not carried out the mandatory background verification, both the times, while he was being hired.

Four special teams have been formed to track Dominic, who is suspected to have presently fled the city. “We suspect that he must have been gone to his relatives’ house for shelter and efforts are on to nab him,” Anucheth said.

Security has been tightened at public places while banks and financial institutions were directed to alert if they come across any money transactions with the currency notes having specific serial numbers. Only this could help us to locate him as the couple is not using their mobile phones, a senior police officer added.