Chaitanyapuri police of Rachakonda police commissionerate on Friday nabbed three persons, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, for cheating several self-drive vehicle rental agencies and stealing their expensive SUVs.
An engineering graduate who later became a mobile technician, G. Mahesh Nuthan, from Bhimavaram, Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, was the main accused behind this well-articulated modus operandi.
“He stayed at private hostels to steal inmates’ credentials such as Aadhaar, PAN and driving licence, and took them in the name of offering two-wheeler and four-wheeler driver jobs. He then used these to hire vehicles from self-drive agencies such as Zoomcar, Royal Brothers and Drivezy,” he explained.
He would then damage the vehicles’ GPS tracking device and escape. The registration number plates were replaced with fake number plates and the vehicles sold at cheaper prices.
Mahesh’s history since 2016 include similar offences and he was booked in police limits of Madhapur, Malakpet, Bhimavaram and SR Nagar, police said. Cases of thefts were also booked in Visakhapatnam, Howrah, Kochi, Pune and Bengaluru.
Along with him, police also arrested two of his aides Shaik Munawar and Konda Sai Madan of Ibrahimpatnam in Krishna district. Police said that CCTV footage was crucial in nabbing the suspects in related cases.
Five SUVs, one each from Mumbai, Odisha, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad, and a motorcycle were seized from the trio. They were booked for cheating, theft and breach of trust.
