Coimbatore City Police have arrested three persons, including a college student, after it found that they had had a role in stealing cars and two-wheelers. The police have recovered three cars and four two-wheelers.
Commissioner of Police A.K. Viswanathan, who shared the details with the media on the arrest and recovery, said that accused V. Gowtham (25), T. Vivek (22), and R. Dileep Kumar (22), visited premises of companies that repaired and serviced cars and two-wheelers, took away the keys, managed to obtained addresses of the owners of those vehicles whose keys they had stolen, visited their houses and took away the cars.
Gowtham, the student, was the mastermind behind the crime as he knew how the automobile service companies operated — experience he had gained by working at a service company in Pollachi, said Rathinapuri Inspector D. Suresh, who was the head of the special team that arrested the three.
Gowtham had then brought in his relative Vivek and his neighbourhood friend Dileep. The three were residents of localities near Lawley Road.
Mr. Viswanathan said that he was forced to constitute a special team as the modus operandi in the theft appeared to be similar.
The two easily managed to take away the keys because after service and washing of the vehicles, the service company representatives usually parked the vehicles in the open, where access was easy. And in cases where the keys went missing, the owners had used spare keys to open and run the vehicles. They did not expect their vehicles to be stolen.
The three had managed to sell all the four motorcycles and a car, the Commissioner said and added that the police would now probe how they had managed to sell the vehicles.
Gowtham had two theft cases pending against him — one in Ramanathapuram Police Station and another in R.S. Puram, the police added.
Mr. Viswanathan congratulated the team members — Inspector Mr. Suresh, Sub Inspectors Yussuf and Mariadass, Head Constables Williams, Jegadeesan and others.
