Security agency car driver flees with client’s Rs 5.4 million

A private security agency in Bangalore, which offers escort services to business establishments for safe transport of huge sums of money, was left high and dry on Friday after its cab driver fled with a cash of Rs 5.4 million in true filmy style.

The security agency’s personnel had collected Rs 5.4 million from a finance company on Airport Road in Bangalore and were proceeding to a bank on M G Road in a car engaged by a travel firm when the incident took place.

Enroute to the bank, the security agency’s cash officers Lakshman Reddy and Sesha Reddy decided to collect another Rs 1.1 million from a business house in Indiranagar. When the car reached the destination in Indiranagar, the cash officers left the Rs 5.4 million already collected in the box, kept inside the car, and asked the armed escort Eerappa to stay back in the vehicle.

When the cash officers went inside the business house to collect the money, the car driver Narayana said he would park the car till they returned and asked escort to get down from the vehicle and help him park the car.

Eerappa got down from the car, leaving his rifle behind, and was directing the driver towards a parking space. But, the driver sensed the opportunity and fled away from the scene.

A shocked Eerappa could do little, but shout for help even as the driver sped away. Eerappa rushed to the cash officers, who were still collecting the money, and informed them about the matter.

The cash officers alerted the police, which immediately flashed a look-out notice for the car. After half an hour of search, the police found the car abandoned in a nearby lane in Indiranagar. But, the cash and the driver were missing. However, the rifle had been left behind.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the absconding car driver Narayana, a resident of K R Puram in the City, already had two theft cases registered against him in Bangalore.

The security agency - A P Securitas Private Limited – is incidentally owned by the relative of a retired Director General of Police. The management of the security agency is regretting that they engaged a car from a travel firm that had hired a driver without verifying his antecedents.