Pune: Two locked SUVs stolen from different spots within hours

PUNE: Two locked Toyota Fortuner vehicles, totally worth Rs21 lakh, were stolen from Shukrawar Peth and Bibvewadi-Kondhwa Road on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

One of the sportts utility vehicles (SUVs) belonged to Milind Vaste (42) from Laxminagar in Parvati, owner of a tailoring firm. The other was of Krupal Salunke (34), a wholesale vegetable dealer from Market Yard.


The police have launched investigations to trace the vehicles after CCTV camera captured images of four men stealing the SUV of Vaste, parked outside the residence of one of his friends in Shukrawar Peth.

The police checked footage from the CCTV cameras installed on Khed-Shivapur toll plaza on the outskirts of the city but failed to trace the SUV of vegetable dealer Salunke (34), stolen on Tuesday early morning.

Vaste had purchased the SUV in 2013. He had parked the vehicle outside the residence of his friend Gautam Solanki (47) at Kushal Villa apartments at Subhashnagar in Shukrawar Peth on the night of April 7. Two days later, Vaste received a call from Solanki saying that the vehicle was stolen, following which he lodged an FIR with the Khadak police.

Senior inspector Rajendra Mokashi of the Khadak police said, “The thieves stole the SUV on April 8 between 10.30pm and 11pm. The theft came to light around 11am the next day. We don’t know in which direction the thieves fled. We are checking footage of CCTV cameras for arresting them at the earliest.”

Vaste told TOI, “I had given the SUV to my friend (Solanki) for using it for a few days. After the vehicle was stolen, we checked CCTV footage and found that four men came in a car and stopped near the SUV. Three men got down and fled with the SUV. I think such offences can be committed by persons having sound technical knowledge of such vehicles because they have a central locking system and operate on remote control.”

Vegetable dealer Salunke’s driver had parked his two vehicles — the SUV and a sedan car — along the Bibvewadi-Kondhwa Road on Monday night because road concreting work was going on at the vegetable dealer’s society.

When Salunke came down the next day, he found his car, but the SUV was missing. He immediately contacted his driver, but he was also not aware of the SUV. After searching the SUV in the area, Salunke approached the Market Yard police and lodged a complaint.

Salunke, a resident of Sayali Apartments at Kanchan Ganga society in Market Yard, told TOI, “Around 8am on Tuesday, I found the SUV was stolen. We are still in a shock. How such a big vehicle can be stolen from a city like Pune?”

He said he checked the footage of the CCTV cameras at the Khed-Shivapur toll plaza. “But our vehicle was not traced,” Salunke said. GPS was not installed in his about six-year-old SUV. Sub-inspector Subhash Mahale of the Market Yard police said there were no CCTV cameras at the spot from where the SUV was stolen.The police suspect that the thieves might have fled through the wrong side of the road.