The Navi Mumbai crime branch arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the cash van robbery at Kharghar in the second week of August. The police had earlier nabbed five accused from Mumbai who looted Rs10 lakh from the van.

On August 8, the gang equipped with choppers, hammers, iron rods, came in an SUV and stopped in front of Radiant Cash Management Services Pvt Ltd that refills ATM machines. The goons threw chilly powder on the of the cash van driver’s face and then fled with a bag containing Rs10 lakh.

“Though the main culprits were arrested within 10 days, we knew that some of their associates were still on the run. We had been searching for them ever since and finally zeroed in on them in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai,” said Shrikant Pathak, deputy commissioner of police (crime).

The arrested men have been identified as Gopal Devendra, 34, Shivaraman Pallar, 31, Bhaskaran Ollar, 29, and Karpaswami Subramoniyam, 36. While the first three suspects were arrested from Tamil Nadu on Saturday, the fourth accused was arrested from Vashi railway station on Monday evening.

“While escaping from Kharghar, the gang’s SUV hit another car at Kopri village and they also got into a scuffle with an auto driver. They even attacked the driver of that car with a chopper on his feet and then fled the spot. That driver later informed us about the incident and also gave the registration number of their SUV,” Pathak Said.

The same gang attacked two bank officials in Belapur in December 2012 and robbed them of Rs20 lakh. They targeted another cash van in 2011 in APMC market and stole Rs55 lakh from it. They also attempted to rob one more car in Vashi in 2011, but finally managed to steal only a laptop.

“These four accused alone committed around 10 dacoities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in the last two and half years,” another crime branch official said.

The gang’s modus operandi was to commit a crime and to run away to some other state and then again to come back after six to eight months to commit another crime.

“They were planning similar crimes in both Mumbai and Tamil Nadu. Thankfully, we got hold of them before they execute those plans,” Pathak said.

The police have booked the accused under sections 395 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Arms Act.