Six persons were arrested for allegedly attempting to steal an ATM cash van with Rs 2.13 crore, which was abandoned after a chase by motorists and police in Gujarat's Kutch district, an official said on Saturday.

The official said that the accused, two of whom are employees of a cash management firm, were apprehended within hours of the crime that occurred on Friday morning.

The incident occurred at Banking Circle in Gandhidham town of Kutch district on Friday morning, when five employees of a cash management firm went to a nearby tea stall to eat after loading Rs 2.13 crore in the van, said Sagar Barmar, superintendent of police, Kutch-East.

The men were supposed to deposit the cash collected from a bank into various ATMs in the town during the day, he said.

"When the employees were eating at a place nearby after locking the van, someone entered the vehicle using a duplicate key and drove away. On learning about the loot, one of the employees immediately called the police while custodian Dipak Sathwara took the help of a motorcyclist to chase the van. Local police reached the spot and chased the van in their vehicle," Bagmar said.

The van hit a car driven by one Darshit Thakkar, and when it did not stop, he joined the chase and gave a lift to Sathwara, he said.

On realising that a car and police vehicle were giving a chase, the driver abandoned the van on the outskirts of the town and fled in another car belonging to his accomplice, the official said.

After recovering the van with Rs 2.13 crore cash, the police formed teams and launched a search operation to nab the culprits, he said.

Based on the CCTV footage, technical surveillance and information collected from sources, the police nabbed all the six accused, including Dinesh Fafal (21) who drove the van, the SP said.

Five others involved in the crime are Rahul Sanjot (25), Vivek Sanjot (22), Rahul Barot (20), Nitin Bhanushali (23) and Gautam Vinzoda (19), all residents of Kutch district, he said.

Investigations revealed that both Vivek Sanjot and Bhanushali worked in the cash management firm's collection division, he said.

"The duo earlier worked as custodians who were supposed to refill ATMs after collecting money from banks. At that time, they planned to siphon off money they were supposed to deposit in ATMs. However, they could not execute their plan, as they were transferred to the collection department nearly two months ago," Bagmar said.

The duo then hatched the plan to steal the cash van and roped in four others. Since the van was parked at Vivek Sanjot's residence in Adipur town of Gandhidham taluka every night, he asked Vinzoda to make a duplicate key for the vehicle, he said.

As directed by Vivek Sanjot, Bhanushali approached employees in the van and convinced them to have some snacks. As soon as these employees left after locking the vehicle, Fafal, Rahul Sanjot and Barot came to the spot in a car, Bagmar said.

"Using the duplicate key, Fafal entered the van and drove away from the spot. Rahul Sanjot and Barot were following the van in their car, while Vinzoda also followed it in his car," he said.

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