Thane Police Dismantle Vehicle Theft and Resale Racket, Apprehending Nine, Including Three RTO Officials

Thane police arrested nine, including three RTO officials, for stealing and reselling vehicles by altering chassis numbers. Twenty-nine vehicles worth Rs 5.5 crore were recovered. The main accused, Javed Sheikh, used fabricated chassis numbers and connived with RTO officials to re-register stolen vehicles. The RTO officials allegedly approved registrations and uploaded details on the portal, concealing the vehicles' illegal status. Sheikh faces multiple cases in Maharashtra and other states.

The police in Maharashtra's Thane city on Thursday claimed to have busted a racket involving theft and resale of vehicles by tampering with their chassis numbers, with the arrest of nine persons including three RTO officials.

The police said in a release they had recovered 29 vehicles worth about Rs 5.5 crore that had been stolen and sold.

The city's crime branch launched a probe after getting a tip-off about vehicles stolen from other states being registered in Maharashtra with falsified documents, it said.

Working on several inputs, the police arrested the main accused, Javed Abdulla Sheikh, alias Maniar, from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the release said. The accused replaced the chassis and engine numbers of vehicles stolen from other states with fabricated ones with the help of the other accused. The vehicles were then reregistered with Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in places like Nagpur and Amravati, it said. An assistant RTO official from Amravati, a motor transport inspector and an assistant motor transport inspector have also been arrested for connivance, the police said.

The RTO officials allegedly approved the registration of vehicles and uploaded the details on their portal, making people believe there was no problem with these stolen vehicles. The main accused is named in ten similar cases registered in Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mira Bhayander, Dhule and Aurangabad. He is also involved in crimes in UP and Haryana, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)