HYDERABAD: Cyberabad police on Friday arrested a habitual offender Gudati Mahesh Nuthan Kumar, who stole vehicles that he hired from self-drive agencies and disposed them off at cheaper rates among his friends and relatives. Mahesh(27), an engineering graduate would stay in a private hostel, during which he would steal ID cards and valuables from inmates. Using them, he hired vehicles from the agencies and stole them. He had also removed GPS trackers from all the seven vehicles he stole from seven States. Police recovered all the stolen vehicles including a Royal Enfield worth around Rs 70 lakh from him.
After completing his engineering in 2016, Mahesh moved to Hyderabad and started working as a mobile technician at Malakpet. He was arrested for stealing mobile phones and accessories. Mahesh then returned to his native village, where he stole a camera and went to jail. After being released on bail, he again came to Hyderabad and stole a car, laptop and cash from a hostel and also a self drive scooter. He was arrested again at SR Nagar.
Out on bail, he stole a hostel mate’s I-cards and cash at Punjagutta. He travelled to Bengaluru and using these documents, hired a bike Royal Enfield bike from Royal Brothers self drive vehicles. He removed the GPS tracker and rode to Vizag. In 2020, he stole six cars from different self drive agencies in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Disabling the GPS, his trick
Mahesh would stay in hostels and steal I-cards which he would use to hire snazzy cars. He’d disable the GPS tracker and ride off with the vehicles