MBA grad caught with neighbour’s stolen SUV

Amit Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

A 30-year-old MBA graduate has been arrested for the theft of his neighbour’s Toyota Fortuner. The SUV was stolen in July from a housing society in Sector 49 here.

The accused, Milan Sharma, a resident of RCS Society, Sector 49, was nabbed by Crime Branch sleuths while he was trying to sell the vehicle for Rs 2.5 lakh in Chandigarh.

The vehicle being stolen from inside a housing society had stunned everyone. The owner of the vehicle had lost the keys, which the accused had managed to get. The accused stole the vehicle the next day and drove it out of the society gates during the early morning hours. Since the CCTV cameras at the society were not functional, the accused could not be identified.

Then, a case in connection with the theft was registered at the Sector 49 police station.

The police said Milan parked the vehicle in Sector 16, Panchkula, and started looking for buyers. The Crime Branch sleuths then received a tip-off that a person desperately wanted to sell a SUV, that too at a throwaway price. Getting the alert, the police laid a trap to nab the accused.

A team, led by Inspector Amanjot Singh, incharge, Crime Branch, posing as potential buyers contacted the accused. The 30-year-old told them that there were no documents of the vehicle and it would be the buyer’s responsibility to deal with it.

Sources said a deal was stuck for Rs 2.5 lakh and some advance money was handed over to the accused. “After getting the advance, the accused showed the SUV to the cops,” said a Crime Branch official.

The police then nabbed the accused and recovered the vehicle. Both the number plates of the vehicle were broken so that nobody could identify it. The police said the accused belonged to a well-off family. “His father is a banker, mother a school principal and brother a doctor,” the police added.

The complainant and the accused are known to each other. The accused pursued his MBA from the Symbiosis University, Pune.

The accused was produced in court on Saturday which sent him to judicial custody.