Four-wheelers worth Rs20 lakh seized, three arrested

The city crime branch officials on Thursday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle thieves following the arrest of three suspects. The trio is allegedly involved in forging documents and selling the vehicles in other states.

Additional commissioner of police (crime) Rajender Singh said one of the suspects was caught red-handed in November 2008 while stealing a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) at Bhosari. During the course of investigation, the crime branch arrested two more suspects from Nashik.

A team headed by deputy commissioner of police (crime) Anil Kumbhare, assistant commissioners of police Sangramsinh Nishandar and Vinod Satav, police inspector Sunil Pawar, assistant police inspector Sunil Shinde, constables Sharad Jadhav, Ashok Bhosale and others made the arrests.

The suspects have been identified as Ramzan Shaikh of Nashik, Jasbirsingh Vilku (50) of Navi Mumbai and Hussein Sayyad of Nashik. Hussein was caught red-handed.

Singh said that the suspects had stolen around 40 four-wheelers from Navi Mumbai, Pimpri, Bhosari, Chinchwad and Pune city. They sold these vehicles in Madhya Pradesh and other states. The police have seized three four-wheelers worth Rs20 lakh from the trio.

Singh said the suspects used to steal new vehicles and sell them with the help of forged documents. "They had prepared various vehicle registration documents of regional transport offices (RTOs) in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, fake chassis number documents, blank registration certificate (RC) books, fake ration cards, electricity bills, driving licences and other documents," he said.

They had also prepared fake rubber stamps of RTO officers, school authorities and police officers. They used to erase the old chassis number of stolen vehicles and used metallic punch machine to engrave the fake number.

Gitesh Shelke/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication