Advocate on parole who 'engineered' car thefts

An advocate, on parole after being convicted in a murder case and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, has been accused of ‘guiding’ a gang of four car thieves in their cri­me. 

The gang has reportedly stolen cars worth Rs 1.6 crore. The Hulimavu police received a complaint from one Ravikumar about his car going missing in October, 2013. The police succeeded in nabbing the car thieves on February 10, from Kerala and Chennai. 

Riyaz, Veeren Kutty, Shahid Hamza and Mohammed Mustafa, all natives of Kerala, were arrested by the police and 23 cars worth Rs 1.6 crore were recovered from them. They used to steal cars parked in front of residences, parking lots and in isolated places across the City. Arun Bhaskar, the advocate, used to provide information to the gang on places from where cars can be stolen and also give directions to the gang members.

Bhaskar had been convicted for murdering his lover. The case had been registered in Nanjangud police station of Mysore district. He had come out on parole between October 23 and December 23, 2012, police said.

During his parole, the accused helped them steal cars. After making away with the cars, they would sell them using duplicate registration numbers in Chennai. They would paste stickers of political parties on the cars so that no one has a doubt, police said.

Bhaskar, after completing parole, promptly returned to jail. It is only after interrogating the four car thieves that they came to know about Bhaskar’s involvement. The police said that the four were produced before the 5th ACMM court on February 15, but were released on bail the same day.  “We work so hard to nab the culprits, but the court releases them on bail. All our efforts go waste. The culprits should be punished for such offences without giving them bail,” said a police officer. Bhaskar will be taken into custody for interrogation, said the officer.