Inter-state car sale gang busted; 5 held, 12 vehicles worth ₹2.84 crore seized

Police in Vasai arrested 5 men for using forged documents to buy vehicles on loans, changing reg. numbers, and selling them. Vehicles worth ₹2.84 crore recovered.

MUMBAI: The police in Vasai busted an inter-state gang and arrested five men who allegedly used forged documents to purchase expensive vehicles from car showrooms on vehicle loans and sell them after changing their registration numbers. The police recovered these vehicles worth ₹2.84 crore from the accused.

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According to the police, Jagdish Mali who owns a grocery shop at Galanagar at Nalasopara East had met a person named Rahul Shah in October 2022. Shah, a resident of Gujarat had claimed to be a Chartered Accountant (CA) and told Mali that he could get a loan of ₹2 crore sanctioned for him for business.

Mali then handed him over all his identity documents along with the documents of his wife to get a joint loan sanctioned for their business. A few months later Mali began getting calls from banks to pay his pending EMIs for 12 cars and SUVs, including three Mahindra Thars, a BMW and other expensive cars, which they claimed he had bought on loans.

Mali then approached the police claiming that Shah had misused his documents and acquired bank loans to buy the vehicles in his and his wife’s names. Based on his complaint, the Achole police had on September 27, 2023, registered a case under sections 402, 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of valuables), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code against Shah and his accomplices.

With the help of mobile phone location and other technical data, the police began tracing the accused. On Saturday, the police received information that Shah was in Mumbai and staying in a hotel in Powai. A police team went to the hotel where Shah was staying as Suresh Gopal Bhagat by using a fake ID. After noticing that no person by the name Shah was staying in the hotel, police suspected some foul play obtained CCTV footage and showed his photo to the hotel manager who then directed the police to Shah’s room.

The police then arrested Shah and recovered several SIM cards, mobile phones, Aadhar cards PAN cards and cash of ₹3.34 lakh from him. Based on the information revealed by him, the police also arrested Shah’s six accomplices based in different states. Poornima Chougule-Shringi, deputy commissioner of police, Vasai, said that once Shah acquired the car based on the loan in the name of a victim, he used to send it to his accomplices to sell it in some other state. “The men sold the car for much less than the prevailing market price, but without registration and other documents. The gang would cite some or other emergency and tell the buyer that they would complete the transfer of registration and other documentation for the car later,” said Chougule-Shringi.

The gang members, who have cases against them in Gujarat, Bihar, Mumbai and other cities have been arrested. “We are now trying to get details of the number of vehicles they had bought using fake documents,” said a police officer from Achole police station.