When a police officer knocked on 78-year-old Bengaluru resident Gangadhar’s door on Wednesday afternoon with questions about his car, the senior citizen had no idea his vehicle’s number had just been used in one of the city’s biggest daylight robberies.
Hours later, as news channels flashed the registration number, KA 03 NC 8052, linked to the Rs 7.11-crore strong>ATM heist, he was stunned—not just by the audacity of the crime, but also by a nagging question: why did the criminals choose the number of his Swift among millions of vehicles in Bengaluru.
Rs 7.11 crore was stolen from an ATM logistics vehicle by people who came in an Innova car bearing the registration number KA 03 NC 8052. They posed as income tax and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials. Later the police found out that the Innova’s registration number had been forged and that the number belonged to Gangadhar’s Swift.
The police visited the house of Gangadhar, who runs a business after working in Dubai for a few years. Even now he is in disbelief at how his car’s registration number was used.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Gangadhar said, “I was sleeping when the police officer arrived. He initially asked me about my car’s registration number and for how many years I had used the car. He did not tell me about the robbery. I was not worried but wanted to know why it was in focus.”
Gangadhar thought that his car’s number or some of his identity documents might have been used by some narcotics gang. It was only after the number was flashed on news channels that he got to know the truth. “But by then, the police officer had seen my Swift car, which was parked at my home, and I had given him the registration number,” he said.
Gangadhar further said, “While it is a serious offence and amounts to the misuse of the number, what really surprises me is that my number was chosen from the numbers of millions of vehicles in Bengaluru. This was the first time that a police officer had visited my home. He was very soft spoken.”