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Cars lifted from Chennai roads get rebirth in dists
Chennai city, with limited parking space and hundreds of vehicles parked in open areas on the road sides, has become a hub for vehicle thieves. Police sources say most of the cars stolen at Chennai were those parked on road sides, with the owners living away from where the cars were parked.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Most of these cases go unsolved as police fail to get any definitive clues. Even if they get to nab the accused in such cases, the recovery rate has been poor, sources said.
The city already has well-oiled mechanism to dispose stolen vehicles. There are master craftsmen who change the chassis number and engine number from the stolen vehicle according to the vehicle documents they have. There are a good number of people who do not mind buying a second hand car which does not have documents and as such cars are sold at half the price. If none of the above two methods work, the thieves sell these cars to scrap dealers and the car is knocked down in no time and are sold as parts in spare parts shop in places like Pudupet.
“Once the car is stolen, the thieves keep them hidden far away from where they had been stolen. They then take the cars to other parts of Tamil Nadu where they look for prospective buyers. There are agents who only deal in such cars in various parts of the state,” a police official told DT Next. The agents approach prospective buyers after telling them that the vehicle does not have any documents and sell the car at half the price of its market value. “There are several buyers for such cars. They then operate these cars after changing the number plates and when caught, they grease the palms of the law enforcement officials and continue to operate,” the official added.
A corrupt system helps buyers to use stolen cars who use them to its maximum life and then sell them off to scrap dealers. In another modus operandi, the stolen cars are taken to master craftsmen, who change the chassis and engine numbers of such vehicles. There are agents who collect the RC books of vehicles sold to scrap dealers and also from private financiers who may be having the originals of vehicles that they could not retrieve for non-payment of loans. So the agents approach the craftsmen to change the chassis number and engine number of stolen vehicles to those mentioned in these documents. These cars are then sold out at a higher price as genuine vehicles with documents. If the thieves fail to sell the cars using these methods, they sell them to the scrap dealers at throwaway prices and the cars are knocked down in no time. The parts of the cars are then sold in the spare parts market. Sources said when police crack such cases, they only pick up the accused who had stolen the vehicle and the whole back up system with agents, mechanics and some private financiers who work hands in glove with the racket are left untouched. “We have to break the backup system if we need to bring down the cases of car theft in Chennai,” another official added.
Political party functionary from Mannadi arrested
The MGR Nagar police have arrested the Mannadi deputy secretary of AIADMK’s Amma Peravai on charges of car theft. Police have arrested Sayed Abbas (45), a resident of Broadway and have recovered 8 cars from him. Police are now on the lookout for Riyas, a youth from Kerala, who helped Abbas in stealing cars. The MGR Nagar police team started an investigation after more than 18 car theft cases were reported in MGR Nagar and nearby areas in a few months. Last week another car theft was reported at Bharathidasan Salai, MGR Nagar and police collected the private CCTV footages from the area. They got a clear picture about the assailants who were seen stealing a parked Indica car. Police later identified Sayed Abbas as he was also involved in another bike lifting case. According to sources, Sayed Abbas was picked up on October 27 and the police had travelled with him to different places to recover the vehicles. Police said Sayed Abbas and Riyas targeted mostly Tata Indica and Toyota Etios cars and sold them in different parts of the state. They targeted these cars because they could unlock the doors easily and steal them. The duo seemed to be behind all the car thefts that had taken place in KK Nagar and MGR Nagar areas. Police sources said the arrested accused would be taken in to police custody to recover the remaining cars which they seemed to have sold in various parts of the state. Police have also launched a hunt for Riyas, who seemed to have escaped to Kerala.
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