3 of 4 held for stealing trucks tests positive for Covid

Three of the four accused arrested by the NRI police for stealing trucks have now tested positive for Covid-19.

The two undertrials with their accomplices stole at least three trucks from Navi Mumbai after they were released on bail on June 29, due to the Covid-19 situation.

On July 30, the men allegedly stole a truck from Nhava Sheva and stole a container from Panvel on August 8. They struck the third time by stealing the truck in Ulwe, said police.

Police learnt that the four accused men, two of whom are in their mid-twenties and two others, aged 41, stole the truck from Ulwe in the early hours of August 16 by hot-wiring the truck.

Two of them met in Taloja prison, where they were lodged in separate theft cases from APMC and Taloja police stations. After they were released on bail on June 29, they decided to steal trucks, as both of them had previously worked as truck drivers. With two other accomplices, they would travel in an autorickshaw and identify parked trucks along the highways in Navi Mumbai and steal it at night, an officer said.

Based on CCTV footage and informant network, police managed to trace two of the men in Nerul and arrested them last week. The other two men were planning to sell the truck in Pune, from where they were nabbed.

“The accused had scrapped two vehicles but we were able to nab them before they sold the Ulwe vehicle. Three of them have multiple cases of theft against them dating back to 2014,” said Samir Chaskar, an assistant inspector at NRI Coastal police station.

The police have recovered the truck worth ₹30 lakh from the accused men.

Soon after their arrest, the four accused were tested for Covid-19 as per protocol. Three of them have been tested positive. The accused are admitted at Vashi Hospital and Indiabulls quarantine centre.

The officers and constables who have come in contact with the accused have quarantined themselves and will be tested for the infection in two days, the officer said.