The southeast division police have arrested a notorious inter-state car thief and his associate, and recovered 16 cars worth Rs 1.7 crore stolen from in and around Bengaluru.
The accused Parameshwaran (38), hailing from Madurai, was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police eight years ago on charges of recording private videos of women and blackmailing them.
A senior police officer said that Parameshwaran’s wife, an advocate, would get him out whenever he landed in trouble.
According to the police, the accused took to car theft after the Tamil Nadu police allegedly foisted a false case of vehicle theft on him.
Enraged, Parameshwaran decided to take revenge on the Tamil Nadu police and began stealing vehicles. There are as many as 40 cases of vehicle thefts against him in Tamil Nadu, Goa and Karnataka.
The accused joined hands with his associate Saddam Hussain, a 28-year-old from Chennai, and both became experts in stealing cars parked outside houses.
The accused would then take the vehicles to Chennai and sell them through their contacts after forging the registration plates and vehicle documents.
But the duo's run of luck came to an end when they were arrested by the Hulimavu police, who were following a series of theft cases.
The police kept a close watch on the duo and nabbed them when they were moving suspiciously to steal a vehicle.
During interrogation, the police also came to know about a theft Parameshwaran had committed in Haveri.
Recently, the ace car thief had stolen a vehicle and was heading to Goa when he met with a road accident and was badly injured.
But he still managed to escape from the spot.
Based on the information, the police contacted their counterparts in Haveri to recover the vehicle.