Police make breakthrough in armoured van robbery case

SHAH ALAM: Police have solved the case of the armoured van that was robbed in front of a bank in Sri Serdang last month, with the arrest of two men and seized RM106,900 of the RM461,660 which was stolen from one of them.
Selangor police chief, Commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor, said that police have also initiated a manhunt to track down two more accomplices, one of whom has been identified as a technician from the security company.
"The two have been identified as Mohd Shamrul Hairry Shamsul Kahar, 30, from Bandar Springhill, Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan, and Mohamad Azhar Mohamad Rawai, 26, from Kemayan in Pahang.
"Mohamad Azhar has been identified as a technician. Both have gone into hiding following the arrests of the two suspects on Nov 28 and 29 respectively," he told reporters at the Selangor police headquarters, here today.
On the suspects who were detained by the police, Mazlan said one of them is also a technician in the security company at Senawang in Negeri Sembilan.
"The duo were detained four days after the heist. The technician is a 29-year-old local. Another man who is a grocery store owner was picked up on the following day at Bandar Seri Jempol in Negeri Sembilan," he said.
Investigators seized a box filled with RM106,900 cash, from the grocery store.
The suspects have been remanded for eight days until Dec 6 and the case is being investigated under Section 379 of the Penal Code for theft.
Mazlan revealed that police believe the robbery could have been an inside job where all of the men arrested, including four security guards who were detained initially had planned to carry out the heist.
Those four men, who were arrested on the day of the heist and were subsequently remanded until Nov 30, have been released on bail.
"We will monitor them," Mazlan said, adding that police are also looking at the possibility that any of these men were involved in prior robberies.
On Nov 24 at about 10.30am, two men wearing full-faced helmets, committed the crime in front of a bank by opening the side door of the armoured van and grabbing the bags of cash, before fleeing on a motorcycle.
There were two security guards in the van at the time, while two others were inside the bank.