Mumbai: Two held for vehicle theft, evaded suspicion with patience game

Mumbai: The Deonar police have arrested two history-sheeters notorious in the eastern suburbs for their unusual modus operandi for stealing and reselling vehicles like motorcycles, auto rickshaws and cars.

The duo – Saijan Rais Qureshi, 22, and Saud Mainuddin Khan, 26, also locally called Chuva and Chand – targeted vehicles on roadsides, rode to another destination and parked them after slightly changing the number plate.

Chuva, a resident of Mumbra, and Chand from Kalyan travelled to Govandi just for vehicle theft. In some cases, they added another number to the existing number plate to evade suspicion. They let the vehicles remain parked in new locations for some time before selling them.

Similar complaints lodged at other police stations

The matter came to light when the Deonar police received a complaint about a motorcycle theft on March 13. When the police started looking for suspects, they realised several similar complaints had been lodged at other police stations, including Tilak Nagar and Shivaji Nagar.

With technical investigation and using information from informants, the police managed to arrest them earlier this week from Mumbra. During interrogation, they confessed to stealing six vehicles, including three auto rickshaws and three motorcycles, which they had parked at various locations in Deonar, Shivaji Nagar and Govandi, awaiting potential buyers. The duo is currently remanded to police custody for further investigation.