Noida woman reunited with pet 20 days after it got stolen along with her car

One of the car jackers, Nitin, had kept the stolen dog at his residence and his wife was taking care of it, said investigators

For Sector 93B resident Bhavna Vijan, losing her Honda City car to car jackers was bad enough, but making her ordeal worse, her much loved pet Oreo, a Shih Tzu breed dog, was also in the car when it got stolen on April 5.

The Gautam Budh Nagar police recovered Bhavna Vijan’s Honda City car along with her two-year-old pet and arrested three suspects for the crime. (HT Photo)

A worried Vijan has spent the past 20 days praying for Oreo’s safe return.

On Monday, her prayers were answered. The Gautam Budh Nagar police recovered her Honda City car along with her two-year-old pet and arrested three suspects for the crime.

Narrating her ordeal, 40-year-old Vijan said her car got stolen from outside her children’s school in Sector 135 within about five minutes of her parking it.

“Like I do every day, I parked my car outside the school and locked it. Oreo was inside the car and I had left the window slightly open for him. I went inside to fetch my children and within five minutes I was back, but my car was missing. More than the car, I was worried for my dear Oreo,” said Vijan, a resident of Grand Omaxe society.

Shakti Avasthy, additional deputy commissioner of police (Noida), said on the basis of Vijan’s complaint, an FIR was registered under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code and police teams were deployed to nab the suspects.

“The suspects were identified from CCTV camera footage and we mounted a manual surveillance on their movement. On Monday, the three suspects were arrested from Chaprauli exit on the service road of the expressway,” he said.

The arrested suspects were identified as Nitin Verma, a resident of Gejha village in Sector 93 and native of Jhansi, Ashish, a resident of Barola village in Sector 49 and a native of Bareilly, and Shahrukh Saifi, a resident of Chhalera village in Sector 44 and a native of Hardoi.

“The Honda City and the dog was recovered from the possession of suspects, along with two master keys and two knife-like weapons. This gang has been active since 2022 and they usually target old Honda City cars as they have the master key for that model of the car. Further, they dismantle the cars and earn easy money by selling them for scrap. They were planning to do the same with this car as well but were arrested before they could do that,” said Avasthy.

He added that one of the suspects, Nitin, had kept the dog at his residence and his wife was taking care of it.

“Nitin is the mastermind of the gang. He would find scrap dealers online and connect with them to sell spare parts of stolen cars. In order to convince dealers that the car was not stolen, they used to make fake Aadhaar cards using the details of the car’s owner as shown in the car’s registration certificate, which most owner’s often leave in the glove compartment of the car,” said Avasthy.

He said the three suspects were produced before the court and sent to judicial custody.

Vijan is thankful to the police for recovering her car as well as Oreo. “Oreo seems traumatised;we are not sure in what condition he was being kept by the thieves. However, I am extremely grateful to be reunited with him,” she said.