Fake RBI Team Pulls Off $800K Daylight Heist in Bengaluru

BENGALURU, KARNATAKA — In a meticulously planned and audacious daylight robbery that unfolded in the heart of Bengaluru, a gang of armed men impersonating officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) successfully made away with an estimated ₹7.11 crore (approximately $850,000) from a cash-transport vehicle on Wednesday afternoon.

Police have launched a massive operation to track down the robbers, whose coordinated operation has been described by authorities as unprecedented for the city.

Impersonation and Deception

The robbery occurred on a busy road when six men in an SUV—which bore a “Government of India” sticker and a fake number plate—intercepted the cash-transport van. The van was moving money between bank branches and carried a driver, a cash custodian, and two armed security guards.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh confirmed that the robbers claimed to be RBI officials who needed to perform a document verification check for transporting such a large sum of money.

The deception was carried out in a series of swift moves:

The gang instructed the cash custodian and armed guards to leave their weapons inside the van and get into the robbers’ SUV.

The driver was instructed to continue driving the cash van alone, followed closely by the robbers’ SUV.

A few kilometers later, near the Dairy Circle flyover, the gang forced the custodian and guards out of the SUV, quickly caught up to the cash van, and transferred the entire cash load at gunpoint before speeding away.

Authorities Scramble to Trace Escape Route

The cash transportation service company has filed an official complaint. While the SUV used for the initial interception has reportedly been recovered, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara stated that the suspects used multiple vehicles to transfer the cash and escape, making their trail harder to follow.

Commissioner Singh noted that the area of the transfer had little CCTV coverage. However, the Home Minister expressed confidence in the police, citing a recent success in solving a high-profile gold heist in Vijayapura district earlier this year.