The thieves allegedly stole more than 170 vehicles from Maharashtra and Gujarat over several months. (Representational image)With the arrest of nine persons on Wednesday, the Thane police on Thursday claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle thieves, who allegedly stole more than 170 vehicles from Maharashtra and Gujarat over several months. The police have seized 80 vehicles and are looking for over 25 others that were sold in other states, sources said.
The police said the gang’s activities came to light when a pick-up vehicle was stolen from Rabodi. “The vehicle’s owner, Uddhav Sathe, got an FIR lodged. We found the vehicle in Pune, where several other vehicles were parked too,” said a senior officer.
DCP (Zone I) D S Swami said, “We sent out five teams and they arrested nine persons involved in the theft.” The accused have been identified as Sandeep Lagu, Sadiq Mulla, Altab Gokak, Vineet Madhiwal, Mangilal Jakhad, Ramprasad Inaniya, Javed Khan, Altab Qureshi and Mohammad Yousuf Naim Khan.
“Only two of them are from Mumbai, the rest are from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. They used to break into parked vehicles and steal them. The vehicles were stored in a godown in Pune, where either the vehicles’ engines were changed or fake RC books prepared in Nagaland. These vehicles were then given on rent or sold as second hand vehicles in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states,” Swami said.
The 80 seized vehicles included pick-up trucks, SUVs and sedans, all stolen from Maharashtra and Gujarat, police said. “Upon interrogation, we realised that this gang had stolen vehicles from Thane, Navi Mumbai, Palghar, Mumbai, Nashik, Pune and Ahmednagar, among others. Most cars have been stolen from Thane,” a senior officer said.
The accused were on Thursday remanded to Thane police’s custody. “We are interrogating them to find out where the other stolen vehicles are. Some of them have been given out on rent,” the officer said.
