Kolkata: The Kolkata Police has arrested the mastermind of an interstate car theft racket from Ranchi and recently brought him to Kolkata on transit remand.
Sources said a few months back a man identified as Rahul Ranjan hired a car from a car rental company located in the Amherst Street area.
He reportedly hired the car for seven days and told the rental company that he is going to Bengaluru and will return the car after a week. Meanwhile, the said company provided a car to Ranjan which was fitted with a GPS device. But after a few days, the company spotted that the GPS was somehow disabled after reaching Bengaluru.
When they tried to contact Ranjan, his mobile was switched off. A theft complaint was lodged at the Amherst Street Police Station.
During the probe, cops acquired the photo of accused persons from CCTV footage and circulated the same with the other state police authorities. Recently, police learnt that Ranjan was arrested by the Ranchi Police from Bengaluru in connection with a car theft case registered there.
He was lodged at the Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi. Later, a team from Kolkata Police went to Ranchi and arrested Ranjan from the Birsa Munda jail.
During investigation, it was found that Ranjan’s modus operandi was to hire cars from the car rental services and then sell the vehicles to the car theft syndicate in Karnataka.