Elderly vehicle thief on the run keeps cops guessing about his modus operandi

Nagpur: Mohd Mobin-ur-Rehman, in his 60s, has thrown a unique challenge to the cops. Even as he is on the run, the cops are still clueless how Mobin stole a Bolero car from in front of a hospital at Ramdaspeth on September 7.
Sources said Mobin, who is likely to have stolen the car due to economic stress, had driven it to Yavatmal before returning to the city. His elder son is a software engineer while the younger one is studying engineering. His daughter-in-law too worked at a bank but is said to be on maternity leave currently.
Mobin, who was an autorickshaw driver earlier, is said to have another family at Hyderabad too. He is likely to be one of the few vehicle thieves of his age. The cops are still unsure why Mobin stole the car, whether to dispose it of or use it. He had already changed the registration plate and had been using a fake number on it.
The car, already recovered by the crime branch team, did not have any of its locks on the doors or the ignition, damaged or tampered. The cops feel Mobin must have used a master key, which they want to recover from him after his arrest.
The crime branch team under DCP Chinmay Pandit and additional CP Navinchandra Reddy has managed to recover the stolen car parked outside Mobin’s residence at Bidipeth but he has managed to dodge the police dragnet so far.
A special anti-vehicle theft team under Asst Police Inspector Chetan Borkhade and comprising head constable Namdeo Tekam, Vilas Kokate and others zeroed down upon Mobin after his CCTV footage was recovered. The footage was analyzed by expert cop Pravin Rode to track down Mobin, but he was not present at his Bidipeth residence when the cops barged into it.
It’s learnt Mobin had reached Ramdaspeth by a scooter but abandoned it somewhere in the vicinity before stealing the Bolero SUV. The Bolero SUV, in which a patient had been brought from Madhya Pradesh, was parked on the road. Mobin had managed to drive away from the parking spot on the busy road.
The driver had gone for a tea break for around 15 minutes and was left stunned on returning as the vehicle was missing.
With the help of CCTV of the command-and-control centre, the crime branch team had tracked Mobin’s movements. The CCTV footage had shown that there was a long traffic jam when Mobin was trying to drive away the car, but he calmly negotiated the turns and smoothly zoomed out from the parking slot.
The cops had seen the theft on CCTV but Mobin’s identity was established with the help of CCTV footage of Mobin reaching Ramdaspeth on a scooter. The CCTV analysis team could identify the two-wheeler’s registration number and managed to get details on Mobin.
Cyber cell expert sub-inspector Balram Zadokar and his team managed to track Mobin’s movement through his cellphone too, but he had later switched it off.
The cops feel Mobin’s arrest could throw up some more vehicle theft cases perpetrated by him.