MBA held for stealing hi-end cars from hotels

A management graduate turned inter-state auto lifter who stole high end cars and SUVs including Mercedes and Audi from five star hotels in different cities, has been arrested by Delhi police near Hyatt Regency hotel in the city.

Accused Satender Singh Shekhawat was caught by a police team on a tip off when he was driving an Audi Q4 near Hyatt on September 12. The Audi was found to be stolen from the parking of Holiday Inn Hotel, Aerocity, near IGI Airport, where its owner Arujun Garg had gone for dinner on September 26, 2015, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch)

“Shekhawat who is an MBA (marketing) had developed an ingenious though simple plan of stealing high end vehicles. Such was the simplicity of his modus operandi that nobody could suspect him to be a thief. He would come nicely dressed and pose as a businessman before picking car keys from valet areas of five star hotels,” said the officer.

Well dressed and fluent in English he would talk on phone like any ordinary patron of the hotel and snap up keys of high end vehicles from valet service stand and drive away “nonchalantly”, he said. The accused told police during interrogation that the stolen vehicles were disposed off to his trustworthy receivers who would later use is for drug trafficking to avoid attention of police and other law agencies. Shekhawat has been found involved in more than 20 cases of hurt, robbery and thefts of high end cars.

He was arrested several times in past and was lodged at jails in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Porbandar, Nasik, Mumbai, Ratlam and Mandsor, added the officer.

“The accused was tracked after scanning scores of CCTVs in the city and at toll plazas on outskirts of the city. We are investigating roles of other suspects in the case who help the accused to dispose vehicles,” said a senior police official.