Pramesh Jain
The Doddaballapura police on tuesday busted a gang and arrested a gang of five persons including a car dealer who were getting the stolen cars from UP and Delhi and selling in and around the city after creating fake registration certificates with the help of a tout in Regional Transport office who is also part of their gang.
The accused has been identified as Suresh,28, Lokesh,28,Renuka Prasad,29,cab drivers by profession,Srinivasa,31,a second hand car dealer and Hemanth Kumar,36,a tout at the RTO in Doddaballapura.
The police recovered seven cars worth Rs 50 lakh from them along with the fake RC and Smart cards which the accused have had stolen from the RTO office .
Senior officer told reporters,The gang was busted on Friday when alert police constables Panduranga C and Kumar who were on patrolling duty confronted Suresh, Lokesh and Renuka Prasad,a cab drivers moving in a car and tried to escape soon after noticing the car.
Suspecting something fishy in their behaviour, the duo took them to the station and informed their seniors.
A detailed questioning by the officials led the accused to confessed the crime and and it has revealed that the have a car theif from Delhi who is stealing the cars for them in Delhi and UP and hand it over to them .
The accused change the registration number of the cars and Hemanth Kumar who is accessed in the RTO would steal the smart card and RC certificates to fill the details and create fake documents.
Once the documents are ready,Srinivas would sell the car to his clients.
The accused have not only stolen the cars from Delhi and UP but also from various parts of Bengaluru,Mangaluru,Belagavi and Tamilnadu.
The accused are operational for the last two years and suspected to have stolen and sold many more cars, a senior police officer said .
The police have booked the case of vehicle thefts against them and remanded to judicial custody while further investigations are on.
The police have also alerted the Delhi counterpart about the car thief who was stealing the car on their behalf.
Finally IGP,Central Range,Chandrashekhar,has appreciated, Bengaluru Rural SP,Ravi D Chennanavar,Addl SP,Lakshmi Ganesh,DYSP,Rangappa,CPI,Naveen Kumar,PSIs,as,K Venkatesh,Ranganath,and crime staff as,Panduranga,Sunil,Muniraju,Arjun S Lamani,Shivaraj,Nataraj and puttana has been appreciated for the exemplary and commendable job done by the team and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.