Mumbai: Driver held for stealing autos, giving stolen vehicles on rent

Mumbai: The Pantnagar police have arrested a 49-year-old rickshaw driver for allegedly stealing 15 auto rickshaws from various parts of the city. The modus of the accused, Anand Baban Sonawane, was to steal parked vehicles, change or tweak the number plates and rent it to other auto drivers.

Sonawane, a resident of Kalyan, mostly drove in the Ghatkopar-Kurla areas. The matter surfaced on March 23 when police received a complaint about theft from a rickshaw driver Shivram Raoji Ranim.

Accused identified with help of CCTV footage

The complainant told police that the three-wheeler he had parked near a Jain temple in the Ghatkopar east area on March 14, disappeared during the afternoon hours. The police parallelly started investigating the case.

The accused was located with the help of CCTV camera footage. The police managed to arrest the accused from his residence in Kalyan East, earlier this week. He was brought to Pantnagar police for interrogation, during which he confessed to his crime and revealed his modus.

He also mentioned the number of vehicles he stole (15), the locations (Ghatkopar, Kurla and 1 in Mumbra) and the places where he had hidden the vehicles. The police later managed to seize a total of 15 autorickshaws but found only 12 of them in the police database. A police officer said, “We are currently checking the details of three remaining autos.”