Chandigarh: Out of the 1,120 vehicle thefts in 14 months, 678 were autorickshaws

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Sources in the police say that the percentage of the recovery of the stolen auto-rickshaws is very low: around 30 to 35 per cent only. They add that the auto-rickshaws are easy to sell in the neighbouring states which is a big reason for their theft.

“The luxury cars are a little difficult to sell in the neighbouring states, so the thieves have shifted their focus to the auto-rickshaws. These are easy to sell. The recovery rate is also lesser which encourages thieves to make these vehicles their target,” says a police officer.

The police sources say that sometimes some notorious criminals steal auto-rickshaws to commit crimes in the city and then safely escape as in most of the cases the police do not focus on auto-rickshaws. One such gang was busted by the Mohali police when some criminals snatched an auto-rickshaw, used it to commit crime in Mullanpur area and then abandoned it on Mohali-Chandigarh border last year.

According to the UT police records, a total of 984 vehicle thefts were reported in the city last year and out of the total thefts, 601 were auto-rickshaws while from January 1 to February 29 this year, a total of 136 vehicle thefts have been reported in the city, out of which 77 are auto-rickshaws.

As many as 700 vehicle thefts were reported from Mohali in a span of 14 months and out of the total thefts, the majority are either two-wheelers or cars. Panchkula has a lesser number of vehicle thefts registered as compared to Chandigarh.