Thieves steal cash, valuables worth Rs 21 lakh from three vehicles

SURAT: Thieves stole cash and valuables worth Rs20.64 lakh from three vehicles, complaints about which were registered in different police stations of the city on Monday.

Within 10 minutes of a car being parked by a developer at a project site under construction at Utran, Rs20 lakh cash was stolen from it. Two unidentified persons on a motorcycle broke the glass of the car’s door and picked the bag containing money lying on the seat and escaped. The two thieves were booked at Amroli police station for stealing the cash of Rajesh Kathiriya, 40.

Kathiriya, a resident of Nana Varachha, had gone to his project site after withdrawing cash from a bank. He had withdrawn the money to pay salary to his employees at another project site. He was in the project office for just 10 minutes and on return found cash missing and glass of the car’s door broken.

“We have CCTV footages in which two men on a motorcycle are seen chasing the car. It is likely that the thieves were following the victim from the bank,” said Amroli police.

Police are working to identify the motorcycle’s registration number from the CCTV footages. They are also questioning victim’s staff to verify if information about Kathiriya’s plan to pay salary to his employees was leaked by anyone.

An unidentified person stole Rs50,000 cash from the locked storage space of a scooter parked on Udhna road no 6. Faysal Shaikh, 23, a resident of Saiyedpura, had parked his scooter near Santoshi Pan when the cash was stolen from its storage space by the thief after breaking its lock. Shaikh lodged complaint about the theft at Udhna police station.

In another theft, unidentified persons stole an audio system worth Rs12,000 and AC fittings worth Rs2,000 from a car parked in an apartment in Adajan. The thieves tried to remove the camera fitted in the car worth Rs5,000 but that got damaged. The car belonged to Prakash Merchant, a resident of Muktanand Nagar.