NEW DELHI: In a meticulously planned heist near Delhi University ’s North Campus, two armed robbers on a bike shot a cash van guard and looted Rs 1.5 crore from staff loading cash on to a Citibank ATM in Kamla Nagar area at 10.30am on Saturday. It was all over in less than one-and-a-half minutes.

The robbers kept the briefcase containing the cash on their bike after firing two more shots in the air and fled with ease, witnesses said. The guard, Satender Singh (28), died of his injuries at the hospital. He belongs to Mainpuri area in UP and his family has been informed.

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The incident had the entire police brass at the spot, which is in Jawahar Nagar in Kamla Nagar, in no time but till late in the evening the cops were clueless. The special cell and crime branch has been roped in to track down the two bikers who had concealed their identity behind helmets. An FIR under sections of murder, robbery and Arms Act has been registered.

According to a senior police officer, the cash was being replenished by a firm, Scientific Solutions and Management Services, located in Mansarovar Garden. Two custodians, identified as Ghanshyam Pandey and Deepak Sapra, had set out with Rs 1.5 crore in a green briefcase. They were accompanied by the gunman, Singh – who was carrying a single barrel rifle with him – and the driver, Govind. The Citibank ATM in the UB block was their first destination, police said.

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The van reached the area around 10.20am and the driver parked it on the main road, 50 metres away from the ATM. They had to load Rs 18 lakh in this ATM but the two custodians walked to the kiosk with the briefcase containing Rs 1.5 crore meant for various ATMs in the city.

The guard stood outside the ATM while the custodians went in and began to take out the cash from the briefcase. Suddenly, two men wearing denims and sports shoes arrived on a black Pulsar bike. Both were wearing helmets. The man at the front was wearing a grey sweatshirt and the pillion-rider a black jacket, CCTV footage suggest.

The pillion rider whipped out a pistol and fired at the guard without speaking anything. He took another shot but it missed the guard who had, by then, fallen on the floor and was bleeding from his head – he was shot in the right temple.

Only the pillion rider got down, went inside and at gun point snatched the briefcase. He rushed back to the bike, holding the briefcase between the two of them. The bike took a U-turn and fled towards the ridge via the Malkaganj red light. A car went past them as they were turning the bike but they did not harm the occupants. Two constables chased them but to no avail.

They also fired another shot in the air while fleeing which caused panic in the area and people rushed out to check. S M Katiyal, owner of University Book House, had heard two rounds of firing. He came towards the ATM where he saw a guard lying in a pool of blood.

“I saw a guard lying on the ground, near the CitiBank ATM, with blood flowing out from his head. Two people on a black bike were fleeing from the scene. Two police constables followed the bike. In the meantime, a PCR van arrived and I helped the police in shifting the guard to the van,” Katiyal said.

Vinod, a guard at the next-door Kotak Mahindra Bank, was too scared to react when he spotted the two men. “I couldn’t see the man’s face but I saw him firing at the guard. The men shot at the guard when the custodians were inside the ATM. I didn’t know what to do when they spotted me and pointed the gun towards me. They hurled abuses at me after which I ran from there. I went to the next street and returned after a minute but they were gone by then. There was no way I could have confronted them as I had just a lathi with me,” he said.

Meanwhile, senior police officers, including special commissioners Deepak Mishra and S N Shrivastava, rushed to the spot with DCPs Sanjeev Yadav and Madhur Verma.

Forensic teams inspected the ATM and nearby areas and lifted evidence. The borders and nearby PCR vans were alerted through wireless flashes. All CCTVs and mobile videos were collected from the people present in the vicinity and sent for analysis. The statements of the custodians and witnesses were recorded and the former were cross-examined as well. However, the cops did not get a breakthrough till late evening.

“Several people are being questioned at present. We are probing all angles and hope to crack the case soon,” joint commissioner (central range) Sandeep Goel said.

