A Kanpur man got a big surprise when he received a call from an auto service centre asking for his feedback about the service of a car that was stolen two years ago.
A bigger shock awaited Omendra Saini, the owner of the car. The service centre informed him that the serviced car was returned to Kaushlendra Pratap Singh, a station officer at the Bithoor police station.
Singh was incidentally one of the cops who got injured in the Bikru ambush, in which Vikas Dubey and his men killed eight police officers on July 3 last year. It was only because he took the car for service that the matter came out.
Saini got a call from the KTL service centre to ask him if his car was working fine after its service a few days ago. It surprised him as his vehicle was stolen from a car washing centre in the Barra area on December 31, 2018, he said.
The Hindustan Times quoted Saini as saying, "I was surprised at the query. I was told my details were with the centre due to a previous servicing of my Wagon R, that is why the call was placed for feedback."
After he was told that the vehicle was returned to Singh, he wondered why he was not informed if the police had recovered his stolen car.
Singh, on the other hand, told the Hindustan Times that he had found the car abandoned and seized it but he could not tell the date when it was found.
Police procedure says that it is illegal for officers to use any seized vehicle for personal or official use. As per the details, if the car was seized, the Bithoor police should have informed the Barra police but the latter confirmed that it did not receive any such information.
The police have now ordered an inquiry into the case.