As many as eight luxury cars were stolen from a store dealing in second-hand cars under the Mahanagar police station limits here on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
According to police, four thieves broke into the office on the premises, took the keys of the cars from a cupboard and drove out eight cars in two batches. The police lodged an FIR regarding the matter and initiated investigation.
The stolen vehicles included two luxury cars and six high-end SUVs valued around Rs 20 million, said police.
“The thieves reached the gate of the store around 1am. We have recovered the CCTV footage of the incident and are trying to identify them,” said Sonam Kumar, circle officer (CO) of the area.
Investigators suspected that the thieves were aware about the location of keys inside the office. The accused spent close to an hour on the spot and managed to evade being intercepted by anyone.
The thieves first drove out four cars and returned to take the other four. It was suspected that more people were involved in the theft.
{{/usCountry}}The thieves first drove out four cars and returned to take the other four. It was suspected that more people were involved in the theft.
{{/usCountry}}“We suspect that the thieves are locals and have not left the district. We have alerted police stations in other districts to ensure that the stolen cars are not moved out of the city,” said the CO.
Ten police teams were deployed to identify the thieves and recover the stolen cars.
Meanwhile, local trade union leaders staged a protest over the incident and demanded speedy investigation in the case.
“The store where the theft occurred is hardly 500 metres away from the Mahanagar police station. If the thieves are not nabbed in 48 hours, we will intensify our protest,” said Sanjay Gupta, head of the traders’ union.