HYDERABAD: The recent thefts of two SUVs from LB Nagar and Chaitanyapuri have been giving the police a hard time. The vehicles were stolen when they were parked in front of their owners’ residences, less than 5 km from each other. CCTV footage is available, and special teams have been formed, but the police have not been able to track down and recover the missing SUVs.
Both vehicles were of the same make and model - Toyota Fortuner - and officials suspect the same person or gang could be involved. CCTV footage of the crime in Chaitanyapuri has provided vital clues, the police said, but refused to share details. “Since the investigation is underway, any small leak of information could alert the offenders and affect the investigation,” they explained.
The role of an inter-State gang from Rajasthan is suspected, and the vehicles could have already been taken outside Telangana. However, they were not seen passing through any of the toll plazas surrounding the city, the police said, adding that there are suspicions that the SUVs may have even been reduced to pieces and sold as scrap.
Footage of the first theft, reported from LB Nagar on May 15, showed the offender opening the vehicle’s bonnet, starting the engine and driving away. The car, registered under the name of a woman, was used by her son for business. He had parked it at night, and it was gone in the morning. The second incident was reported from Chaitanyapuri on June 18, after a businessman parked his vehicle outside his house, and was unable to find it in the morning.
Senior officials of the Rachakonda commissionerate, who are monitoring the investigation, said the vehicles will soon be traced and the accused nabbed. On whether the vehicles were likely to have changed hands or been taken outside the State, the police acknowledged these possibilities, but asserted that no conclusion could be arrived at until they were nabbed.