Police have arrested four persons on the charge of theft of auto-rickshaws in Navi Mumbai town and neighbouring places in Maharashtra and seized 10 stolen vehicles from them.
With this, the police claimed to have solved 10 cases of auto-rickshaw thefts four of neighbouring Mumbai, and two each from Thane, Navi Mumbai and Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar police commissionerate.
There had been a number of cases of theft of auto-rickshaws following which the crime branch was directed to solve them, Navi Mumbai’s Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime) Vinayak Vast said.
The police worked on various leads and first arrested a driver, Rehman Yusuf Khan (23), in a case of theft of an auto-rickshaw, he said.
During his interrogation, the police came to know about another accused Hassan Imamsaheb Sayyed (35), from Mankurd in Mumbai, who used to deal in the sale and purchase of auto-rickshaws, the official said.
The police later arrested two more persons auto-rickshaw driver Mohammad Nadeem Naheem Shaikh (38) and plumber Sahebaz Shakhil Husile (29) – in connection with the theft cases, he said.
Ten stolen auto-rickshaws worth Rs 7.60 lakh were seized from their possession, the official said.