Thomas (Special correspondent)
The Bagalagunte police have caught the owner of a travel agency who had cheated over 100 car owners promising them to attach their vehicles to his travel agency and pay them monthly rent .
The accused has been identified as Shivakumar with the help of his associates sold the vehicles in neighbouring Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh for throwaway prices and used the money to repay his huge amount of debts.
Senior officer told media persons,based on complaint Registered by victims a special team was formed to nab the cheating gang a team headed by PI, Bagalagunte swung into action and with the help of technical inputs the team tracked the accused and arrested him.
During investigation the accused Shivakumar, confessed the crime and it is revealed that he is a native of Davanagere owned a poultry farm and also into pulses business.
A detailed investigation by the crime team he revealed that he incurred huge losses and due to harassment from his money lenders came to Bengaluru and started RS travels in Bagalagunte in November last year,offering huge amounts of returns for the cab which they had attached to his travel agencies.
With the help of his associates Krishnegowda, Srikanth and Asghar they approached owners of the SUVs in and around the city with the good deal offer and took their vehicles .
After getting over 100 vehicles,the accused shut down the business and escaped.The vehicles they sold in neighbouring states for throwaway prices citing as seized vehicles from people who failed to pay loan has been recovered from his possession.
The vehicles recovered based on his statement are,Innova crysta – 12,Toyota Innova – 5,Toyota etios- 10, Swift dezire -23,Mahindra verito -4,Indigo -1,Xcent -9,Honda amaze -1,Xylo -1,and Ford Figo -1,totally 67 Hi-End cars Worth of Rs.5.72 has been recovered so far and further investigation is on.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP West,Sandeep Patil,DCP North,Vinayak Patil,ACP,Arun Nagegowda,PI,Sunil HB, PSIs as,Sreekantegowda B,Prabhu KL,Lokesh M,Santhosh Kumar,Nagesh HV,and crime staff as,Srinivas,Kumaraswamy, Purshottam,Mallikarjun,Eshwar Sannaki,Mahantaiah,Puthresh,and Prakash Kilari has been appreciated for the commendable and excellent investigation done by the whole team in nabbing the travel agency owner and his associates and recovered 67 Hi-End cars from them a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.