Bengaluru sees 16 vehicle thefts daily, only 27 percent cases detected by police

BENGALURU:Last month, advocate Ramachandra K (54) was heading to his workplace in a hurry when he parked his vehicle in the magistrate court parking area in Cubbon Park around 11am. When he returned around 1pm, his Honda Activa vehicle was nowhere to be seen. He rushed to Cubbon Park police station and filed a complaint. He has still not heard anything from the police. And Ramachandra is among thousands of Bengalureans whose vehicles are stolen on a daily basis.

According to Bengaluru city police data, 16 vehicles are stolen in the city on an every day basis and only 27 per cent of these theft cases were detected in 2017. City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said they have been able to detect more number of vehicles so far this year. According to him, the number of theft cases in Bengaluru are a lot lesser than other cities such as Mumbai and Hyderabad.DCP (crime-1) Ram Nivas Sepat said they have been able to detect many motor vehicle theft cases in January this year which even dates back to 2016.

Bengaluru has 72.3 lakh vehicles, of which 50 lakh are two wheelers.However, according to Bengaluru city police, the detection numbers are not as staggering as the theft incidents. January itself saw 446 vehicles thefts in the city, of which police were able to trace 68. Police said most of these detected cases are registered and eventually the complainants find that their vehicles had been towed away from no parking zones. According to sources, a large number of bike thefts are reported from Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Banashankari, Adugodi, Whitefield, KR Puram, Koramangala and HSR Layout areas.

Most are stolen from residential areas during the night and from commercial areas during the day, police says.The city also has gangs which steal two wheelers. They sell the vehicles to garages, which use these for spare parts. There are also gangs that pose as potential buyers on online platforms such as Olx. They meet the sellers and steal their two wheelers on the pretext of taking the vehicle on a test drive, police said.

Police sources said that in a majority of the detected chain snatching cases, they found the culprits using stolen bikes to carry out thefts. Such gang members steal a bike, snatch chains and then leave the vehicle in some isolated place before fleeing. Some even steal high end bikes just for a joyride, police said.
While the detection numbers are extremely low, police officials say that there are many vehicles lying in city police stations which nobody bothers to claim. “After registering an FIR, the complainant never comes back to us and approaches the insurance company to claim the loss. Eventually, we auction these vehicles,” a senior police officer said.