JOIN USIndia Gate to Vasant Kunj, criminals eye your car
Whether at India Gate in the heart of the city or at peripheral Vasant Kunj, auto thieves are always at work.
They wait patiently to spot opportunities to strike, like when vehicles are left on the road with their windows open.
It is difficult to identify these thieves at a glance as they keep travelling in stolen cars, always updating themselves and identifying new places to commit the crime. But in most cases, victims themselves make it easier for them.
In one such case on June 22 near India Gate, Sanjay Kumar from east Delhi’s Geeta Colony gave enough time to professional thieves to steal his car.
Kumar, 31, who practices law at Karkardooma court, says he came with his family to India Gate in his Tata Indigo car at 9.30 pm, but unable to find parking space, he left the vehicle in front of Hyderabad House on Ashoka Road after seeing a few cars already parked there. Then they walked to India Gate.
When they returned, he found his car missing. He looked at several places but did not find it. Finally, he realised that it had been stolen. He went to Tilak Marg police station and filed a case of vehicle theft.
“Had he parked his car at an authorised place, it wouldn't have happened,” says a police officer. Kumar cannot help but wonder that if a car is stolen from the centre of the city, it can be stolen from any other part of the capital.
Nainital resident Ajay Chaudhary had to face this harsh fact.
“My vehicle, a white Swift Dzire, was stolen when I came to my sister’s place in Malviya Nagar. I parked the car in front of a house. I last saw my car on June 21 at 10.30 pm. When I went to the spot the next morning, I couldn’t find it,” he says. Chaudhary had made the mistake of parking on the road in front of a house belonging to someone he did not know.
Bharat Bhusan was shocked to find his Santro car stolen within an hour on June 23 when he came from Shahdara to meet his brother in Vasant Kunj.
He parked at around 6 pm on the road behind Vasant Kunj K-Block at Appra Service Station. When he came out of the service station at 7 pm after meeting his elder brother, he found the car missing – stolen within an hour from a road where people travel 24x7.
“Most victims get astonished to find their vehicles stolen, but afterwards they realise that they should have taken the necessary precautions,” says a police officer.