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Months after three cars — a Tata Xenon, a Toyota Innova and a Tata Safari — were stolen from inside Kanjhawala police station’s premises, Delhi Police has arrested a 30-year-old man, who allegedly booked a tow truck from Justdial to get the vehicles lifted. The accused, Rohit Kumar, identified as a suspended civil defence volunteer, was produced before a Delhi court, from where he was sent to police custody. Police said Kumar, a resident of Kanjhawala’s Ladpur village, was arrested a few days ago after police discovered a tow truck taking a car away from the police station last week.
“The truck driver told police he was from Justdial, and the company’s officials then told them it was hired by Kumar. Using technical surveillance, police traced him and arrested him a few days ago,” an officer said. “He told police that until a few years ago, he was working with a leading company that provided tow trucks, and that he had picked up several cars from the police station as part of his job. However, he was suspended after several complaints were received about his behaviour.”
That’s when he decided to steal cars from police stations. For his plan, he roped in a car scrap dealer, against whom there are several cases in Delhi and Haryana. The dealer is absconding, police said. “He booked the tow truck on Justdial and directed it to pick up a car from Kanjhawala police station. He committed the crime in broad daylight — when policemen were on duty. The car was taken to Mayapuri market and dismantled by the scrap dealer, who paid Rs 50,000 for it. Kumar did the same thing with two more cars, and the scrap dealer paid Rs 1 lakh for them,” the officer said.
The case was registered on May 17 after head constable Manjit Singh, the malkhana (police armoury) in-charge of Kanjhawala police station, gave a statement. “Singh said that every day, he would count all cars parked outside the police station in an open government-allotted field. On May 10, he counted the cars and made an entry in the register. He said he was busy with back-to-back emergency duties on May 11 and May 12, and was not able to count the cars those days,” the officer said.
“On May 12, Singh assigned constable Navin to count the vehicles. While counting, Navin found that three cars were missing. During investigation, police found that the three cars were seized recently during a raid by the sub-divisional magistrate concerned.”