The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Thirtynine stolen cars recovered

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Thursday, May 14, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Thirtynine stolen cars recovered

Staff Reporter

Constable’s network helps city police recover the high-end cars

— PHOTO: Satish H.

END OF THE ROAD: The inter-State automobile thieves and the stolen cars being presented before the media in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

HYDERABAD: A constable’s network of informants helped the city police on Wednesday recover 39 cars worth Rs. 2.5 crore stolen from different parts of the country.

The massive recovery was made possible with the arrest of three members of a Hyderabad-based gang that was selling these stolen cars using forged documents after procuring them from one Thakur of Mumbai, the Commissioner’s Task Force DCP, V.B. Kamalasan Reddy, told a press conference. Three of their associates were already arrested by the Task Force based on the inputs given by constable Prabhakar.

Modus operandi

The new gang did not change numbers of the engine and chassis of the stolen vehicles to sell them like other vehicle lifters. Instead, they used lacuna in the office of the Markapuram Road Transport Authority to get them re-registered with other RTA offices before selling them.

They would note down the year the stolen vehicle was manufactured and create fake no-objection certificate -- which is crucial for re-registration of a vehicle -- registration certificate card and insurance papers with the number of a two-wheeler registered in that year. Claiming that the vehicle was being sold, they would submit the documents in the Markapur RTA office seeking re-registration of the vehicle in other RTA offices.

As per the procedure, the staff of the RTA office where re-registration is being sought are required to ascertain with the Markapuram RTA office if the vehicle was really registered with them. But the landline phone of the Markapuram RTA office was not functioning. This made it difficult for other RTA offices to inquire about documents submitted to them for re-registration.

“In some cases, members of the gang used to ring up the RTA office staff claiming to be colleagues of Markapuram RTA office and falsely confirm the documents submitted for re-registration as genuine,” the DCP explained. Thus, the 39 stolen vehicles were re-registered with other RTA offices through the Markapuram RTA office.

The gang also duped some banks and private finance firms of Rs. 50 lakh by pledging false documents of the stolen vehicles. Police said a hunt was on to catch Thakur who had supplied them the stolen vehicles.

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