Almost everything is clear about how dacoits looted Muthoot Finance branch at Ramachandrapuram but ownership of the Black Scorpio they used still remains a mystery.
Kingpins and key persons in the sensational dacoity had been caught and part of the booty too was recovered, but no one knows who is the owner of the black Scorpio. Even the “offenders” are not sure of it!
Details erased
“Since the black Scorpio the gang used to commit the offence was a stolen one, even they don't know who its original owner is ,” an investigator said. The accused Laxman, Subhash and Sunder claimed that they had purchased the Scorpio from a thief.
Even then, its owner could have been traced based on the numbers of the vehicle's chassis and engine. But members of the gang were so cautious that they got the numbers and details erased with a mechanic's help.
“Numbers of engine and chassis are displayed at nearly 10 places on Scorpio vehicle. The dacoits cleverly got all of them erased,” an officer associated with the case said.
Fixing a fake number plate to a stolen vehicle is routine for any offenders. For this gang, that was not sufficient. They noted down number of same model black Scorpio in Mumbai and got a similar number plate made. “They got fake registration card and other documents for the vehicle prepared. If police intercepted them, they would furnish the papers,” investigators explained.
While moving in Telangana, they used AP registration number so that no one raised any suspicion. On entering Maharashtra after the dacoity, they used Maharashtra registration number. As this number was visible in some video footage, Cyberabad police tried to identify the owner based on it.
Unaware
Interestingly, owner of the vehicle with that number turned out to be one Patil from Mumbai. This Patil had a black Scorpio which was purchased in 2007 and registered in 2008. “He was unaware that another black Scorpio with his vehicle's number was being used by the dacoits”, the police said. The gang planned to change the colour of the vehicle and abandon it somewhere near Nasik. Before they could do so, police caught them.
