Owner spots his stolen vehicle on OLX, reports matter to police.
Owner spots his stolen vehicle on OLX, reports matter to police.
Having given up on his hopes of ever been able to see his stolen SUV, a car owner spotted his car on a website where it was on sale.
While the sheer audacity of the thief to put an advertisement of a stolen car on OLX (the famous online selling/buying portal) created a doubt on his mind, Babu was certain about the Tata Safari being his because all the details right from the colour to an idol on the dash board matched.
He walked away and reported the matter to the Anti Auto Theft Squad of the North West District and the teams chalked out a strategy to uncover the plot. A deal was stuck with Zaved Ali who had put up the advertisement by sending a deco customer.
“The customer called on the number given on OLX. The seller asked the buyer to come to Varanasi to finalise the deal. A joint team of Special Staff/NW and PS Shalimar Bagh in the supervision of ACP (Operations) Sh. R.K Ojha was formed and sent along with the complainant to Varanasi and detained Zaved Ali who admitted to have stolen,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North West) Vijay Singh.
But when the vehicle was recovered, the engine number, chasis number and registration number were found changed.
To be doubly sure, the complainant opened the bonnet of the car he found the battery of the car same which he got changed just few months ago.
“However, the car was started with the original key which the complainant was carrying with him and it was seized,” said Mr. Singh.
The arrest of Zaved led police to arrest the head of Ishtiyak-Israr gang based in another part of UP – Meerut. According to the police, the gang is given a list of the desired colour and model provided by a potential customer looking for a stolen vehicle. The identification numbers engraved later are of a condemned vehicle auctioned off by insurance companies.
“Zaved Ali revealed that Israr used to steal the cars from Delhi NCR and would tamper the engine number and chasis number of the stolen car. In order to make this process further full proof they used look for the vehicles which got damaged in accidents and have claimed “total loss”. With the connivance of some local people they used to get the stolen vehicle registered with registration number of that “total loss” vehicle,” said Mr. Singh.
Now the stolen vehicle with registration documents of the “total loss” vehicle would be passed off as a genuine, renovated vehicle which was once damaged.
