An attempt to steal a vehicle was foiled and it was recovered in less than an hour thanks to the timely intervention of the Palarivattom police on Tuesday morning.
A lady was about to take out her compact SUV from her flat at Mamangalam around 10 a.m. when a man drew her attention to the lack of pressure in the tyre. As she was busy checking it, the man got into the vehicle and sped away.
The lady promptly alerted the Palarivattom police. Though the lady had the GPS tracker for the vehicle activated on her mobile phone, it wasn’t of any help since the bag containing her wallet and phone was inside the vehicle.
“So, we approached the manufacturers of the missing car who traced it for us. Though we intercepted the vehicle, he took a detour and the vehicle was later found abandoned in Panangad. It was locked with the valuables of the woman inside,” said the police. However, the woman declined to lodge a complaint probably out of fear that it may delay the release of the vehicle.
“It emerged that there was an ongoing dispute over the vehicle. Though it was possessed by the woman, the registration certificate was in the name of another person who used to be a driver and aide to the woman's mother. Reportedly, the vehicle was bought in his name owing to issues with the woman's CIBIL score rating. The assumption is that the man had tried to usurp the vehicle with the help of an accomplice,” the police said. In the absence of a complaint, the police were about to release the vehicle to the woman as she used to possess it.
Meanwhile, the police are looking into the CCTV footage in the area to identify the man who had got away with the vehicle.
