2 cars stolen in separate incidents in Pune

In two separate incidents, two private cars were stolen by men posing as customers on Monday. 

In one of the two cases, the perpetrators were recovery agents of a finance company to whom the taxi owner had to pay the money.

Vijay Mohite (37), a resident of Aadharsha Colony in Tingarenagar has lodged a complaint alleging that he was robbed of his car by recovery agents of a finance company from which he had taken a loan. He alleged that the recovery agents took away his car because he had failed to pay three installments of the loan. He named one of the three recovery agents as Santosh Kachi. The Vishrantwadi police has filed a case against the recovery agents under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code comprises robbery act done by them with common intention. But no arrests have been made.

Sudhakar Kate, inspector incharge of Vishrantwadi police station, said, “Vijay had purchased the car after taking loan from a finance company a year ago. For several months, he paid installments but failed to pay his installments for three months. Recovery agent Santosh was intimidating Vijay. He and others summoned Vijay outside the car and posing as customersm they forcefully took away the car from him around 8.30 am on May 27.”

Assistant police inspector Mangesh Jagtap, who is investigating the case, said, “Vijay says he could not pay installments of Rs9000 per month since April because he is facing financial crisis. He claims he had promised the finance company to repay entire loan by August.”

At Chandannagar, driver of a private taxi, who was in Pune to drop a passenger, was robbed of the car, a cellphone and petty cash by a gang of three.

The taxi driver, Santosh Raskar (27) from Nimgoan Bhogi village in Shirur taluka, has lodged a complaint with the Airport police under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code for robbery and act done by them with common intention.

Sub-inspector Anant Sahane, who is investigating the case said, “Santosh had come to Pune to drop some passengers. After dropping the passengers, Santosh halted by the side of the road and dozed off. On Monday, four men tapped on the window of the car he was driving and asked him to take them to Ahmednagar. Santosh refused to ferry them saying he did not own the vehicle but one of the four men forced open the door and they got in.”

He added, “The four men assaulted Santosh, blindfolded him and drove the vehicle to an isolated area near Kharadi. They beat him up, relieved him of his cellphone and cash of Rs500 and forced him to alight. They then took off in the car. We have recovered CCTV footage from some establishments in Chandannagar area and are scrutinising it.”