Surathkal garage owner, mastermind behind sale of cars stolen from B’luru

Mangaluru: A case concerning theft of cars from Bengaluru has been cracked by the Bagalgunte police from Bengaluru and apparently, the vehicles were being sold in Mangaluru. It is learnt that the owner of a garage at Surathkal was the mastermind of this entire operation.

In an operation, the police successfully arrested three accused and recovered nine cars of different brands and models worth about Rs 40 lakh from the accused. The arrested are identified as Dileesh (38) and Shaji Keshavan (47) from Kerala, who reportedly used to steal cars from Bengaluru and Ali Ahmed from Surathkal, who is the main accused owning a garage in Surathkal and functioned as the conspirator for these thefts.

Modus Operandi

Apparently, Ali used to click photographs of cars which used to be referred to his garage for repairs and then ask Dilelssh and Shaji to steal similar model cars from Bengaluru. The duo would then travel to the state capital, locate the required car model and during the night, they either opened the cars with duplicate keys or by using software and stole the cars. They took care to make use of alternative routes by avoiding highway thereby prevent any confrontation from the cops. They would then reach Surathkal and hand over the vehicles to Ali who in-turn would pay them about Rs 80,000 to one lakh per vehicle.

Ali would then tamper with the car numbers, chassis numbers, other details, re-paint the stolen cars which he would later sell at a higher price, stated the police.