47 cars worth Rs 3 cr recovered: Racket selling cars taken on rent busted in Rajkot, 2 arrested

Parthrajsinh Gohil, deputy commissioner of police (crime), told during a press conference that the duo had taken these cars on rent for self-driving purposes. However, instead of returning to their owners, the duo sold some of the cars without the knowledge of their owners.

“They had already sold some of the cars to third parties in Gujarat without the knowledge of rightful owners of those cars and were in the process of selling others,” Crime Branch inspector Mehul Gondaliya told The Indian Express.

Police said Kotadiya himself used to give his car on rent, adding that he used to seek cars on rent in the name of Shahmadar and pay due rent for a few trips to win the trust of the owners. However, after a certain point, Shahmadar would not return the car and the duo would sell it to someone else.

FIRs under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 114 (abetter present when offence is committed) were registered against the accused at four police stations — Rajkot Taluka, ‘B’ Division, Gandhigram and Bhaktinagar. “We have recovered almost all the cars the accused had obtained through cheating and had not returned to their owners. Efforts are on to recover a few more vehicles,” Gondaliya added.