Cong leader’s son, 5 others held in Audi theft

Vadodara: Shrikant Gandhi, son of senior Congress leader and former councilor Chinnam Gandhi, was arrested by the special operations group (SOG) along with five others in connection with the theft of tainted Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL) managing director Amit Bhatnagar’s Audi car.
SOG sleuths said that Shrikant was nabbed after their investigations revealed his involvement in the crime. Along with Shrikant, Bhatnagar’s two drivers - Karsan Rathwa and Nagin Makwana - were also arrested. In fact, they were the masterminds of the theft.

The car valued at around Rs 1.25 crore was stolen from Bhatnagar’s bungalow in New Alkapuri on May 5 by two persons who posed as enforcement directorate (ED) officials. “Rathwa and Makwana are masterminds of the crime. As different agencies keep visiting Bhatnagar’s residence for investigations, the duo decided to take opportunity of the situation,” said H M Chauhan, SOG police inspector.

The two who posed as ED officials were Veracino Carona and Prakash Naidu, who works as a driver.

“Rathwa and Makwana contacted Carona, who was the neighbour of Shrikant’s friend Sanjiv Dabhi. Shrikant deals in used cars. Carona contacted Naidu and took him along for committing the crime. Carona approached the security guards at Bhatnagar’s house and introduced himself and Naidu as ED officials,” Chauhan told TOI. The duo asked for keys of Audi and then drove away with the vehicle.

Dabhi was the former driver of Akota BJP MLA Seema Mohile for one month in January-February..

Chauhan said that the duo then took the car directly to Shrikant who was known to him. “Gandhi offered them Rs two lakh but they demanded at least Rs 7 to 8 lakh. Gandhi then took the car for test drive along with Carona and Dabhi. When their negotiations about the sale price were on, the news of the car theft began doing rounds on social media,” Chauhan said. When he got to know that the news had spread, Carona fled from the spot during the test drive, leaving Dabhi and Shrikant.

“Gandhi told Dabhi to take the car to Rajpipla and leave it there. The CCTV footages show that the car was in Rajpipla at about 8 pm, five hours after it was stolen. Once we recovered the car and collected CCTV footages of Vadodara and Rajpipla roads, we got clues that pointed to involvement of someone close to Bhatnagar family,” Chauhan added. The cops then picked up the accused who spilled the beans.

Police said that once Gandhi learnt that the car was stolen, instead of approaching the cops, he still tried to negotiate a deal and hid the car in Rajpipla.

After the car was recovered on May 6, Shrikant got himself admitted in a private hospital from where he was picked up on Wednesday.

All the six accused have been handed over to the Laxmipura police station.

Drivers’ mistake helped crack the case

Vadodara: The special operations group (SOG) could crack the case quickly due to a mistake committed by Amit Bhatnagar’s drivers who had planned the theft. One of the CCTVs at Bhatnagar’s house wasn’t working after its cables got damaged when a tree fell down. The drivers thought all the CCTVs were not working but two cameras at the entry gate were recording all the happenings.Sources close to the family said that Nagin had been working for them for last 25 years while Karsan was around for 12 years. Police said that they stole the car to earn some quick money.