Thane: Car silencer thieves strike platinum, 4 from Kurla held

THANE: Kalwa police busted a gang of car-silencer thieves, arrested four Kurla residents and detected 25 cases. The accused would take out few grams of metal dust and extract platinum group metals (palladium and rhodium metal dust) from the silencers and sell them.
Police said those arrested were Samashuddin Shah (21), Nadeem Qureshi aka Nepali (21), Samashuddin Khan (22) and Saddam Khan (26), and 25 silencers worth Rs 6.5 lakh were seized. Another accused is absconding.
Police said they operated in Thane, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Virar,, Kalyan-Dombivli and Goa.
“They had a specific interest in stealing silencers of Eeco vehicles due to its fitting and easy to detach and extract precious metal dust from the silencer,” said a senior police official
Kalwa police got the breakthrough while investigating a case of Kharegaon resident whose silencer was robbed. Police got leads after scanning CCTV footage, which led them to Kurla. Police set up a trap in Kapadiyanagar and arrested them.
Police said that the silencers are priced at Rs70,000 in the market and due its make and fitting with fewer nut-bolts, it is easily to pull out.
“The accused would take out nearly 10-12 grams platinum and sell it in the market. The price of platinum was Rs3,000-Rs3,500 per gm. After the platinum was removed, it was given to the absconding accused, who would sell it. To whom it was being sold will be revealed after his arrest,” said DCP (zone-1) Avinash Ambure. They would then sell the silencers for Rs 10,000 as brand new ones.