Kalaburagi Police arrest five-man inter-State gang of car lifters, recover vehicle

Superintendent of Police Adduru Srinivasalu returning the key of the recovered vehicle to the owner in Kalaburagi on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI

In a significant achievement, the Kalaburagi District Police on Saturday arrested a five-member inter-State gang of vehicle lifters and recovered the stolen vehicle from them.

Superintendent of Police Adduru Srinivasulu, addressing presspersons at his office here on Sunday, said that the five-member inter-State gang stole the vehicle from a parking lot during the Kori Siddeshwara annual car festival in Nalwar village of Chittapur taluk on January 30.

The accused have been identified as Vitthal Laskare, Prashant Gaikwad, Sahadev Tandli, Sunil Bheed and Raju Gaikwad.

The complainant (vehicle owner), Dattu Guttedar of Jewargi town in Kalaburagi district, filed a complaint with the Wadi Police saying that on January 30, his vehicle, which was parked in the open area at a distance from the temple in Nalwar village, had been stolen.

The complainant said that when he came back after attending the Jatra Mahotsava, he found that his vehicle was missing from the place he had parked it and approached the police.

Following the complaint, Mr. Srinivasulu constituted a team led by Shahabad Deputy Superintendent of Police Shankargouda Patil, Circle Police Inspector of Chittapur Chandrashekar Tigadi and Police Sub-Inspector Wadi Tirumalesh and started investigation.

Based on a tip-off, the police began their search for the stolen vehicle from Nalwar and passed through Wadi, Shahabad, Aland and entered Maharashtra.

Mr. Srinivasulu said that the search for the vehicle took the police on a long-winding trip as they conducted a massive combing operation in Kalaburagi district, Maharashtra and a few parts of Madhya Pradesh too.

Explaining the modus operandi, Mr. Srinivasulu said that the vehicle lifters used to follow car owners to such places and taking advantage of crowds, they stole car keys from them and fled with their vehicles.

The officer said that the same gang recently lifted a vehicle during the Banashankari annual car festival in Badami and also at Veerabhadreshwara Jatra Mahotsava in Yemmiganur of Andhra Pradesh.