Thane, Mar 4 (PTI) The police in Maharashtra’s Thane district have arrested four members of a gang involved in stealing vehicles and selling them after tampering with documents, an official said on Monday.
The accused were arrested from different parts of the state in the last two days, and 47 stolen vehicles worth more than Rs 7.32 crore were recovered, MBVV Police Commissioner Madhukar Pandey said.
The racket came to light when the police were probing into cases of vehicle theft registered at Kashimira and Valiv police stations in February and June 2021, he said.
The gang allegedly used fake documents to register non-existent vehicles in states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland and obtained registration numbers and online NOCs from RTO offices for re-registration in Maharashtra, the official said.
The accused then allegedly stole vehicles matching the information in NOCs, replaced the engine and chassis numbers, and registered them in Maharashtra for resale, he said.
The thefts had taken place in the jurisdiction of 16 police stations over the last three to four years, the official said. PTI COR ARU
