Two former employees of service centre arrested for stealing car

Two former employees of a car service centre in Sector 85 were arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing a client’s car more than a month ago

Two former employees of a car service centre in Sector 85 were arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing a client’s car more than a month ago. Police said that the suspects approached the victim posing as staff of the service centre in Noida’s Sector 85 and fled with his car.

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The suspects were identified as Ajaypal Singh, 32, a resident of Sahibabad, and Hunny Kumar alias Lala, 30, a native of Meerut. Police said that Singh had worked as a general manager at the service centre and was sacked about six months ago.

The complainant, Rajat Gupta, is a resident of Noida’s Sector 143 B, which comes under the Surajpur police station limits. Gupta said that he had contacted the service centre over phone on July 9. “An executive of the centre said a staffer will pick up my Hyundai i-20 for service the next day. On July 10, Lala called me at 7.45am informing that he was a representative of the car service centre and had come to pick up the car,” Gupta said.

According to Gupta, Lala was in the uniform and he also gave a receiving slip before taking away the car. However, an hour later Gupta again received a call from the service centre informing him that a staffer was going to pick up his vehicle. Then he realised that he was cheated by the former employees of the car service centre.

Gupta filed a complaint on July 17 at Surajpur police station when he was not able to get his car back.

Ajay Kumar, station house officer of Surajpur police station, said that a case was registered against Lala under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC. “We started tracing the mobile phone number used in making call. On Friday, we received information about his movement near Exotica Fresco society in Sector 137. We arrested him and recovered the mobile phone used in the crime,” he said.

During interrogation, Lala revealed the name of Ajaypal Singh who was also arrested, police said.

“Singh told police that he was terminated from the job. So, he decided to defame the service centre. Since he had worked there as a general manager, he managed to steal the details of Gupta’s pick-up order. He then engaged Lala, also a former employee of the centre, to commit the crime,” the SHO said.

Police said that the suspects had fled with the car towards Ghaziabad. However, Madhuban police in Ghaziabad was conducting a checking drive at that time. The suspects feared they would be arrested so they abandoned the car on the roadside and fled the spot, police said, adding that the Ghaziabad police later seized the car.

The suspects were produced in court that sent them to judicial custody, police said.