Mumbai police arrests three who fled with rented cars

The accused would approach car owners, claiming that they ran their business out of Aarey Colony and provided services to large companies and for airport services. They would rent the vehicles from the owners for ₹40,000-₹50,000 a month. However, in two-three months, they would stop paying the rent and flee with the car.

The Mumbai police is currently investigating an inter-state racket, wherein the accused allegedly duped car owners across the city by renting their vehicles on the pretext of running a tours and travels business and fleeing with the cars. Last week, the Aarey police arrested three people in connection with the case and have recovered 37 vehicles so far.

Last week, the Aarey police arrested three people in connection with the case and have recovered 37 vehicles so far. (Reuters File Photo)

On Friday, the accused trio – Raja Nadar, Lakshmikant Patkar and Amit Sawant – was taken into custody by Kasturba Marg police. The accused would approach car owners, claiming that they ran their business out of Aarey Colony and provided services to large companies and for airport services. They would rent the vehicles from the owners for ₹40,000-₹50,000 a month. However, in two-three months, they would stop paying the rent and flee with the car.

The case came to light after Santosh Nilakh, one of the vehicle owners, filed a complaint with the Aarey police. Nilakh said that the accused had promised him monthly rent of ₹45,000 under a three-year contract and said the car would be in the service of a private firm.

Senior inspector Nutan Pawar of Aarey police station said, “We arrested the trio last week. During interrogation, they said that they had sold several cars outside Mumbai after changing their number plates and creating bogus registration documents. Most of these were sold in Nagpur and cities in Madhya Pradesh. We sent police teams to Madhya Pradesh and locations in Maharashtra to recover the vehicles.”

“We have recovered 37 cars, of which 27 have been brought to Mumbai and the rest are in Nagpur. Some of these cars were being used for illegal activities such as transportation of liquor and gutkha,” said DS Swami, deputy commissioner of police, zone 12.