Man flees with Zoom Car after removing GPS device

A man who rented a car from Zoom Cars in central Bengaluru last week has disappeared with the vehicle, whose location tracking device (GPS) was found in Andhra Pradesh.

Jayanth Jadav M, a manager at Zoom Cars, told police that one Sai Kumar rented a Hyundai i20 Elite for 12 hours on June 18 but did not return the car even after a day. The company later learnt from police that the car’s GPS device was dismantled and discarded at a remote location in Andhra Pradesh.

The police said Kumar booked the car bearing registration number KA-03-AD 8193 online and drove it away from the company’s Garuda Mall pick-up point around 10 pm on June 18.

He had told the company’s staff that he would return the car the following morning, before 12 hours.

The following day, as the car did not turn up until evening, the staffers started calling Kumar’s number which was switched off.

They escalated the matter with higher-ups and lodged a complaint with the jurisdictional Ashoknagar police.

In his complaint, Jadav asked the police to trace the car and the suspect. Kumar has claimed to be a resident of Srinivas Nagar, Indrapalem, Kakinada, East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, according to a copy of the driving licence submitted to Zoom Cars.

After a preliminary investigation, police traced the GPS device to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. They have analysed the call records of Kumar and are in the process of tracing him.

“We do not know if he was the one who dismantled the GPS (device) and discarded it or if someone else is involved. We have specific leads on Sai Kumar and will nab him within a week,” said a senior police officer.

A GPS service provider for MNCs in Bengaluru told DH that one need not be a professional to crack a GPS device.

“There are three types of GPS — mobile GPS, GPS with antenna and immobile one. Except for the immobile model, it doesn’t take a professional to crack GPS devices,” the service provider said.