Two held for Rs 35 lakh heist

CHENNAI: Two persons, including a former employee of a private security firm, involved in the kidnap-assault-robbing of a car driver at Thoraipakkam on Monday have been arrested. While a major portion of the stolen amount has been recovered, a special police team has cast its net for three more persons suspected to be involved in the heist.On Monday afternoon, a four-member gang assaulted and kidnapped C Balaji (30), a travel agency car driver, near a TASMAC shop on the 200 Feet Road in Thoraipakkam.  Balaji had been hired by Johnson, executive officer of ISS SDB Security Services Private Limited on Harrington Road in Chetpet, for making collections from 25 TASMAC outlets in the southern suburbs. The gang robbed the collection amount of `35 lakh kept in a steel box in the Tata Indica, threw out the driver and abandoned the vehicle at Pallikaranai.Grilled by a special police team, Balaji claimed that the quartet looked like north Indians. The police also questioned Johnson and a guard of the security firm, Bimal Begu, a native of Assam, who had accompanied him. Without divulging further details, the police said that with the help of cellphone records they zeroed in on Irfan Nool, a former employee of the security firm.Irfan and another ex-employee of the firm Amanullah, both from Assam, turned out to be the masterminds behind the crime, ACP (PRO) Mohan Raj told Express.As they had worked in the firm before, the duo was aware of the collections made by the company from TASMAC shops on behalf of a private bank, he said. On qui tting the firm a few months ago, they hatched a conspiracy to rob the cash and roped in Rajendran and two other Assamese - Bilal and Noor Ali - to execute the plan. Irfan and Rajendran were arrested in Avadi and Rs 22,80,250 was recovered from them, while a search is on for Amanullah, Bilal and Noor Ali, the ACP said.