Carjacker’s new ‘business model’: Rent SUVs in Delhi, sell them in other states

Mukesh Cahuhan and his associates started stealing cars from self-drive firms when they realised they would get full documents of the vehicles making it easy to sell them further.

A man who quit carjacking to focus on stealing expensive cars from self-drive firms in Delhi has been arrested from Jalore in Rajasthan and seven stolen vehicles have been recovered from him.

Police nabbed a suspect from Rajasthan for stealing cars from self-drive firms in Delhi. (Picture: Sourced)

Mukesh Chauhan, 31, was an active carjacker until self-drive car rental firms caught his attention, said police. “Chauhan and his associates felt that stealing from the self-drive firms was easier and less risky than carjacking,” said Ishwar Singh, DCP (South).

Their modus operandi was easy. They would approach the self-drive firms and submit fake identity proofs and other documents while renting a car. Even the security money required to be deposited at the time of the rental seemed less because they were receiving all the documents of the car.

They would drive away, never to return. Armed with the documents of the misappropriated car, it was relatively easier to sell it anywhere. They would sell the cars in places like Jodhpur, Jaipur and Jalore in Rajasthan and Nagaland.

They had to approach the police after the cars were never returned. The mobile phones of the borrowers were found to be switched off. The documents submitted them were found to be fake leaving them untraceable.

The two firms had lost seven cars, including two Toyota Fortuners, a Mahindra XUV and a Mahindra Scorpio, in a short period. Multiple cases in this connection were registered at Vasant Kunj (North) police station and the mobile phones of the thieves put under surveillance.

That led the police team to learn that one of the suspects, Chauhan, was hiding in Jalore. The team camped in Jalore for over a week, but Chauhan would keep changing his hideout.

He was finally nabbed last week while he was driving a Honda Amaze, one of the cars stolen from the self-drive firm. He was arrested and at his instance, seven cars recovered from different places. A hunt is on for his associates.