TOI

Bangalore, Aug 23: Two from Uttar Pradesh, living in Mumbai. Two from Kerala, one from Kolar and another from Karwar. Six men with one passion - cars, especially SUVs. When they were finally nabbed, 50 cars and a motorcycle, together worth over Rs 3 crore, were recovered.

Their passion for top brands like Toyota, Chevrolet, Tata, Mahindra, Skoda and Honda was quite evident. The city crime branch (CCB) police arrested them and recovered vehicles stolen from Mumbai, Mangalore, Dharwad, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

These car thieves are Latif (38) and Rajan alias Alex (44), both from Kerala, Javid Khan (24) and Raju Yadav (25), both migrants from UP, Shaikh Arif (22) from Bangarpet and Abdul Rashid Shaikh (42). Joint commissioner of crime Gopal B Hosur said they were professional in their approach and worked with different gangs.

The tip-off came when Latif was arrested trying to sell a stolen motorcycle in the city. He revealed Rajan's name and the police recovered eight SUVs from them. Interrogation revealed that the duo had more links in Bangalore, and that's when Shaikh Arif and Abdul Rashid were held. These two spoke about Javid Khan and Raju Yadav and this led to the recovery of 42 more cars.

Latif is a habitual vehicle-lifter and was even convicted in a Kerala court. When he was being taken to Karwar in connection with some other cases, he escaped. His associate Rajan was wanted in more than 50 vehicle-theft cases and non-bailable warrants had been issued against him.

When Javed and Raju went to Mumbai in search of jobs, they met Shaikh Arif, who was visiting his sister. They stole some vehicles from Mumbai and sold them in Raichur and Karwar. The gang helped each other in disposing of vehicles, usually stealing a vehicle in one state and making sure to sell it in another. If the Karnataka counterpart received a vehicle either from Kerala or Maharashtra, he would arrange for a no-objection certificate in the RTO office to change the registration. It would be sold in Bangalore through a mediator.

They could also easily differentiate between cars which had only an auto lock and those with burglar alarm.