Nearly three weeks after a failed robbery attempt at a Muthoot Finance branch in Hyderabad's Mailardevpally area, the Cyberabad police cracked the case with the arrest of four members of an inter-state gang.
While two of them were arrested from Chandrayangutta in the city, two others were picked up from from Osmanabad in Maharashtra on Friday.
This comes a week after a special team of the Cyberabad police had arrested two people from Osmanabad.
The accused have been identified as Santosh Dasharath Veerkar (35) and Shafiuddin Navaboddin Sayyad (30), both from Maharashtra, Arshad Fulumiddin Khan (28) from Bengal, and Mohammed Dastagir (55) from Chandrayangautta.
However, three other accused are still on the run.
Earlier this month, four men attempted to rob the Mailardevpally branch of Muthoot Finance.
CCTV footage of the incident showed one man jump over the counter to threaten employees with a knife, while two others were armed with guns.
However, alert employees immediately raised a ruckus and hit the alarm. The armed robbers then fled in a car driven by a fifth accomplice.
Hours after the failed robbery attempt, the Cyberabad police launched a manhunt for the suspects in a residential neighbourhood in the city, roping in teams from the elite counter-terrorism unit Octopus force.
After obtaining forensic evidence and CCTV footage from the crime scene, the police tracked the getaway vehicle of the suspects to 'Happy Homes' apartment in Attapur.
The SUV that was supposed to be used as the getaway car, was also found in the parking lot of the apartment.
At the time, the police had reportedly recovered a polythene cover in which 'Veersavarkar Chowk, Osmanabad' had been imprinted, which led them to their first arrest of two accused.
The Hindu reported that Sayyad came to the city to meet Dastagir, when police rushed in and arrested the duo. Based on their confession, the other two were picked up from Maharashtra.
The Times of India reported that Shareef, Khan and Sayyad met at the Dhule sub-jail in 2008, when Shareef and Khan were arrested in a robbery case, and Sayyad was imprisoned for a fake currency case.
"The accused hatched a plan to commit robberies after getting out of prison. As they were from different states, Dastagir was their local contact. He was also their driver," Cyberabad joint commissioner of police Shahnawaz Qasim told media persons on Friday.
The police said that this particular branch of Muthoot Finance was targeted, as it had no security guard, and was in an ideal location to make a getaway.