Police arrest members of inter-state thief gang

Mangalore, February 25: The Dakshina Kannada rural police have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle thieves with the arrest of its five key members.

The arrested are Moidin alias Unhi (37), son of Ummar and resident of Varkady village in Kasargod, Sayyed Nihal alias Sayyed Irfan Nihal (40), son of Rashid Saab and resident of Bangalore, Hanif alias Eli Hanif (37), son of Badavakunhi, resident of Thokoor near Jokatte and S Ashraf (28), son of Ramla and resident of Shanthinagar in Vitlapadnur.

Disclosing this to media persons on Friday, A Subrahmanyeshwara Rao, DK Superintendent of Police, said that the recovery process of these stolen vehicles began following a tip-off received by the police from Moidin and Hanif who were arrested by the Bantwal police under the guidance of Circle Inspector K Nanjunde Gowda on February 18.

So far police had recovered 22 two-wheelers and 14 four-wheelers including two tippers, two lorries, two Scorpio cars, two Omni vans, an Innova, Swift, Santro, Qualis, Maruthi 800, Indica each valued at nearly Rs 1 crore from their possession. Five vehicles including Tavera, Maruthi Omni, Scorpio and two lorries are yet to be recovered, he said.

The vehicles have been recovered from various parts of the state such as Bangalore, Hubli, Mangalore, Mandya, Davanagere, Kerala, Arasikere, Majeshwara, Mysore, Bantwal and other places.

The gang which was active since two years, used to steal vehicles, mainly using duplicate keys or altering gear indicator, throughout the state and sell them to people by making fake RC and other documents, he added. “Since most of vehicles have been registered under Dharawad RTO i.e., KA 25, we will also investigate the role of officers in this connection,” he said.

In various parts of the states, 24 cases have been registered against Nihal who is the prime accused, while S Ashraf who was in judicial custody has been released on body warrant.

Police personnel Vivekananda, MRM Thahasildar, Rakshith Kumar, ASI Kepu Gowda, Head constables Sanjeeva Purusha, Jnanashekhara, Kaleimar and others participated in the operation.

The SP declared a reward of Rs 10,000 for the police team. Rohini Katoch, Puttur ASP was present.