Automobile thieves arrested

Thane police have busted three gangs of alleged automobile thieves and recovered 9 cars,15 motorcycles,6 auto-rickshaws and jewellery from them. Acting on a tip-off the Kalyan anti-extortion cell (unit 3) intercepted Ravindra Tiwari and Prabhakar Farde-Shelar on July 21. According to the police,the duo was driving a golden Maruti Swift and was on their way to loot a petrol pump in Ulhasnagar. Their interrogation led to the arrest of Surendra Choudhary alias Balaram (35) from Thakurli. The police recovered 5 cars and 7 motor cycles from the three accused. With the arrest of these three,the police cracked nine vehicle theft cases lodged at Vitalwadi,Shanti Nagar,Badlapur,and MFC police stations.

The accused had a unique modus operandi to steal the vehicles,said the police. The gang would flick keys from the service centers and put them back after making a duplicate one. The accused would then follow the vehicle and steal it from the parking lot using the duplicate keys.

In a parallel development,Ulhasnagar crime branch (unit 4) had arrested Munj Gauda (45),a resident of Santacruz and Mahesh alias Raghunath Shetty (29),a resident of Diwa and recovered two stolen Maruti Esteem cars,one Maruti 800 and two Tavera. The anti-extortion cell busted a seven-member gang of automobile thieves and recovered 8 motorcyles,6 auto rickshaw and 110 gram gold jewellery from them.