Bengaluru Heist: Armed Men Pose as Central Bank Officials, Steal $800,000

Fri Nov 21 2025 22:35:06 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In a brazen daytime robbery, armed men impersonating officials from India's central bank have stolen 70 million rupees from a cash transport van in Karnataka.

A group of six armed robbers executed a daylight heist in Bengaluru, Karnataka, posing as Reserve Bank of India officials to seize a significant sum of cash. The robbery involved tricking the van's crew into leaving their weapons behind, after which the gang transferred the cash at gunpoint. Despite a large search operation, numerous details remain unknown, and police are investigating links within the cash transport service.

Armed men posing as officials from India's central bank have robbed a vehicle transporting 70 million rupees ($800,000; £600,000) in the southern state of Karnataka, police say.

A massive operation has been launched to find the men who robbed the van in the heart of Bengaluru city in broad daylight.

The robbery occurred on Wednesday afternoon. Six men in an SUV stopped a cash transport van on a busy road as it was moving money between bank branches, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh confirmed.

The van was carrying a driver, a cash custodian, and two armed security guards.

Mr. Singh reported that the robbers identified themselves as officials from the Reserve Bank of India, claiming they needed to verify the transport documents for such a huge cash amount.

The gang ordered the cash custodian and guards to leave their firearms in the van and enter the SUV, instructing the driver to continue driving with the cash.

After tailing the cash van for several kilometers, the robbers forced the driver out, made the cash custodian and guards disembark from the SUV, transferred the cash at gunpoint, and then fled.

Police noted the area had limited CCTV coverage and are probing whether the gang employed multiple vehicles. A complaint has been filed by the cash transportation service.

The SUV used in the heist displayed a fake number plate and bore a sticker indicating it was from the 'Government of India', a police official disclosed under condition of anonymity.

Authorities are also looking into whether any employees of the cash transport company had a role in the heist.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the police have recovered the SUV involved. However, Home Minister G Parameshwara indicated that the actual escape vehicle is still unspecified.

It has been verified that they changed vehicles and moved the money, he stated, expressing confidence in the police's ability to solve the case quickly, as they did with previous high-profile bank robberies.

Earlier this year, a separate incident saw 59 kilograms of gold worth 532.6 million rupees stolen from a bank using a duplicate locker key. Police have since recovered a portion of the gold and apprehended 15 individuals, including two former employees.