Crooks, who stole hired cabs after thrashing drivers, held

Crime Branch officials have arrested three people for a series of car thefts over a year. The trio would get the numbers of hire-a-cab services from Justdial, hire a cab, stop the vehicle midway, beat up the driver, and run away with the car. Two Innovas, two Ford Fiestas and one motorcycle were recovered from them.

Caught ! u00a0Crime Branch officials with the three accused and recovered carsu00a0

The arrested accused have been identified as Rakesh Ashok Padval (23) a resident of 48, Anandpark, Vishrantwadi; Sachin Shivaji Padval (23) and Subhash Mithalal Phulmali (20) both residents of Ambegaon in Pune.

The cops have succeeded in solving around four car theft cases following the arrest.

Modus operandi
According to Assistant Police Commissioner Rajendra Bhamre, the group would call up Just Dial, a contact provider service, for contacts of cabs-on-hire. Specifying a destination, they would stop the car midway, beat the driver up and run away with the vehicle.

"After taking the car, they would change the chassis number and engine number. Apart from this, they would get fake documents made from Shakil Siyad, a resident of Buldhana. These cars were then sold to people in the city," said Rajendra Bhamre, assistant police commissioner.

Following up on the car theft case, Dinesh Shinde, a constable from the department, came to know about someone selling an Innova car with forged documents. "Acting on a tip-off, we laid a trap and arrested Rakesh Padval on May 28 from Alandi Road. After recovering the car, we found forged documents, stamps of Dhule RTO office and duplicate number plates," said Arun Walture, a police inspector from the crime branch.

Shinde informed the police about two other gang members and the police were able to solve five vehicle theft cases registered in Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune and two from Ahmednagar.u00a0