Ghaziabad cops, owner baffled on stolen car’s ‘return’
The man’s car was found parked at the same spot from which it was stolen around 10 days ago
To the utter surprise of a Safari car owner at Sahibabad, his car stolen around 10 days ago was recently returned to the same spot. The police are now investigating why the car was stolen and then returned.
The white car was stolen by a group of unidentified persons on the intervening night of May 20 and 21. The vehicle belongs to Sanjeev Sethi, a first-floor resident of Naveen Park in Sahibabad. He said he generally parks his car in an open parking lot barely 30 feet from his flat.
“On the morning of May 21, I sent my son to pick up some papers from the car, but it was missing. We immediately called the police emergency number and also lodged an FIR for theft,” said Sanjeev Sethi, a commercial vehicle spare parts dealer who runs his business at Kashmere Gate in Delhi.
“On the morning of June 1, my wife spotted a car at the same spot in the parking lot and sent my son to take a look. When he reached, he found that it was indeed our car and the number was also the same. We were as surprised as our neighbours and the police that it was returned safely,” he added.
Upon inspecting the car, Sethi found that the door locks and the steering lock were open, but other than that nothing suspicious was found.
“After the car was returned, I scanned the CCTV footage of the area procured from a neighbour and found that when the car was being returned to the parking lot, it was being followed by a white Swift car. When we checked the CCTV footage of the time the car was stolen, we spotted the same vehicle,” Sethi said.
He informed the police and handed over the CCTV footage of both the days to the investigating officer.
Police too expressed surprise over the unusual incident and said they will investigate the motive behind the theft and the return.
“We have the CCTV footage with us and will try to scan it for the people who took the car. It is surprising, but we have to investigate why the car was taken away for nearly 10 days. It is possible that it was used for a crime and returned. Thieves and robbers generally use stolen vehicles for committing robbery and other crimes,” said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).
