A miscreant identified as Arun Yadav, who has been charged of stealing over 200 vehicles in the past two months in Guwahati, is currently on the run.
Yadav, a resident of Guwahati’s VIP Road area, was running fake car rental service in the city along with his accomplices and co-accused - Sanjeev Singh and Lenin Phukan.
It has come to light that the three accused were running fake travel agencies in the city and duped a large number of people by convincing them to rent out their cars and bikes to them for attractive returns.
Many Guwahatians rented out new and old vehicles to them and after receiving the promised rents for a couple of months, they stopped hearing from either of the three.
“I rented out a brand new Toyota Fortuner for Rs 70,000 as monthly return. Yadav had convinced me that he would rent out my car to the DGM of OIL, but I was not paid a single rupee thereafter. He also made me part with my Nissan Terrano, which I had kept for my personal use, for a night and disappeared with it,” said Diganta Lashkar who happened to be one of the victims.
Multiple cases have been registered against Yadav and his accomplices at Bharalumukh PS, Dispur PS, Bhangagarh PS, Sonapur PS as well as the Crime Branch of Guwahati City Police.
"Several two-wheelers and four-wheelers have been stolen in the past month. We have been successful in recovering some of the vehicles and further investigation is going on," Deepak Kumar, Commissioner of Police informed G Plus.
On November 4, Sanjeev Singh was arrested from Siliguri, Kumar added.
While Sanjeev Singh was running a rental service company named Mahabahu Cars and Rentals, Arun Yadav was running DR Enterprise and Lenin Phukan was running the Guwahati Tour and To-Let Service company.
Police investigation has revealed that the accused had sold off most of the cars in other states of the northeast and Yadav's key aide in running the racket was his son-in-law Homen Doley from Golaghat, who is also on the run.
A senior police official investigating the matter informed G Plus that cases have been registered in connection with the theft of close to 60 vehicles. However, over 200 vehicles were duped by the fraudsters out of which many high-end, GPS-enabled cars were tracked and recovered without the registration of case as well.
Victims blame city cops of taking bribes to give clean chit to accused
The wife of Lenin Phukan, one of the prime accused, has been accused of bribing police officials to sway the case in her husband's favour. She has also been accused of trying to bribe the victims and influence them to withdraw their cases.
"Lenin Phukan is one of the main culprits in the racket. He has run away after illegally mortgaging our vehicles. His wife Pallabi Borthakur recently called me up and asked me to withdraw my case against him. She even offered to pay me lakhs of rupees in return," a victim told G Plus under condition of anonymity.
The victim also accused the cops of east police district of accepting bribes from Borthakur to sway the case in Lenin’s favour and clear his name from the police records.
A senior police official speaking to G Plus confirmed the allegations levied on Borthakur. “She had come to my office to offer bribe a couple of days back. She appeared to be pregnant and desperately wanting to clear the allegations on Phukan,” he said.
While Lenin Phukan, Ajay Yadav and Homen Doley are currently on the run, police officials claim to be trying their best to catch them.
Police have successfully recovered most of the vehicles and have sent their teams to different parts of the state and nearby states in search of the accused.
