Man arrested for stealing, mortgaging 50 autos, bikes

A man in Mumbai has been arrested for stealing 50 autorickshaws and motorcycles and mortgaging them with money transfer agents for large sums of money. He also allegedly stole 30 mobile phones and sold them to the agents. The police are investigating why the agents accepted the vehicles without ownership papers. The accused has been identified as Navi Alam Usman Khan and is now in police custody.

MUMBAI: A 31-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stealing 50 autorickshaws, motorcycles from the city and mortgaging them with money transfer agents to get amounts between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh for each vehicle transferred to his account in Gujarat.

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The accused allegedly had also stolen 30 mobile phones which he sold to the money transfer agents.

The accused has been identified as Navi Alam Usman Khan, who was arrested while playing cards with his friends in Kashmiria, said Sudhir Kudalkar, senior police inspector of MHB police station.

The police have asked the money transfer agents to explain why they accepted the vehicles brought by Khan without any ownership papers and bills.

Kudalkar said that on June 12, they received a complaint that an auto rickshaw was stolen when it was parked on River Valley Road in Shivaji Nagar, Borivali West.

The police registered a case of theft and began scanning the CCTV recordings across the area to trace the movement of the auto after it was stolen.

“The officer found the auto being driven towards Chembur through the Western Express Highway. On further tracking, the police found the auto parked outside a money transfer shop in Chembur,” said Kudalkar.

The police officers said that on enquiring with the agent at the shop, they found out that the autorickshaw had been mortgaged with them for ₹50,000, which they had transferred to an account in Surat, Gujarat.

The officers, who got Khan’s mobile number from the shop, traced his location to Kashimira from where he was arrested while playing cards with his friends on Thursday.

“We arrested Khan and learnt that he had stolen at least 50 autos and motorcycles and over 30 mobile phones from Mumbai and Mira Bhayander and mortgaged them with different money transfer shops, getting between ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh for each of the vehicles,” said Kudalkar.

After getting the money, Khan used to leave the vehicle with the money transfer shop owner. The police said that Khan used to not submit any documents while mortgaging the vehicles or selling the mobile phones to money transfer agents.

“We have called the money transfer agents and asked them why they did not ask for any ownership papers while accepting the vehicles as mortgage or bills while buying the mobile phone,” said Kudalkar.

On Friday, the police produced Khan before a court where he was remanded in police custody.

“We are now finding out how many more vehicles and phones Khan has robbed,” said Kudalkar.