A 32-year-old man from Satna, Madhya Pradesh, has been taken into custody by the Pune City Police. In an effort to avoid being arrested in connection with a few vehicle theft instances, reported to the Paud police in 2021 and the Kothrud police in 2022, the accused faked his own death, through his family, in a Madhya Pradesh newspaper. When the police inquiry revealed that the thief was still alive, he was apprehended in Madhya Pradesh.
Vivek Mishra, a citizen of Maihar in the Madhya Pradesh district of Satna, has been identified as the arrested thief. Mishra operated a tyre store in the Kothrud region. In 2021, he had stolen a bicycle from the Paud region. He returned to his hometown following the theft.
In October of last year, he was seen on a CCTV camera robbing an Ertiga car in Kothrud’s, Kishkindha Nagar. After verifying his identity and arriving at his Satna home, the Kothrud police team was surprised to learn of his demise from his family. They had even shown them his obituary from a regional newspaper.
However, the police refused to accept their explanation. Once they learned that the man had been spotted in Kothrud once more, thanks to an informant, they made headway with the case, and on January 29 managed to catch him after setting up a trap.
The detection team members Dahibate and Chaudhar, as well as police sub-inspector Mali, learned that Mishra arrived in Pune by changing a car’s license plate. After that, he was trapped and captured. The two stolen automobiles were also retrieved.
A police official, Hemant Patil stated, “Mishra returned to Pune in January, thinking that the car theft investigation had died down, but was spotted by one of our informers.”
Patil added, “He admitted during questioning that he stole the car and replaced its old number plate, besides the theft of the scooter, both for fast money. He also said he found it difficult to sell the vehicles due to want of documents.”
The action was carried out under the supervision of Additional Commissioner of Police (West region) Rajendra Dahale, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 3) Suhail Sharma, Assistant Commissioner of Police Rukmini Galande and Senior Police Inspector Hemant Patil.
The team included Police Inspector (Crime) Balasaheb Bade, Sub-Inspector Mali, and police personnel Chaudhar, Sul, Shirke, Rathod, Valmiki, Dahibate and Shelke.