Hyderabad: A man was arrested by the Cyberabad police on Sunday, for stealing vehicles from Self-drive agencies and traveling to different places using fake identities.
The man identified as Gudati Mahesh Nuthan Kumar, the ‘hi-tech thief’ rode a Royal Enfield bike that he had stolen from Bengaluru, from Hyderabad to Ladakh and back to Hyderabad, covering more than 5,000 km along the way, along with five other friends. Police found that Mahesh was a travel buff and loved to be on the move. He also was planning to start his own travel agency.
Mahesh, an engineering graduate from West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, loved travelling since childhood. After completing graduation, he made friends belonging to different States and travelled to their natives with them. He thought that if he had a vehicle of his own, travelling would be easier.
But he had different plans! He started stealing identity cards and documents from his friends in private hostels and used them to hire cars from self-drive agencies. Using identity cards stolen from a hostel in Panjagutta, he hired a Royal Enfield bike from Bengaluru and rode to Vizag on it. He then returned to Hyderabad and, along with five other friends, went on an expedition to Ladakh for 28 days.
According to the police, while hiring vehicles, he would claim that he was going on a trip out of the State and submit the stolen identity cards. After crossing the State border, he would remove the GPS device from the vehicle and throw them in some trucks covering long distances. When he would not return within the stipulated time, the agency staff would try to contact him, but would find his phone switched off. They would then track the GPS, only to find it in some truck. In all his crimes, he used the same technique.
The police recovered six cars and a bike from him, worth Rs 70 lakh, which he had stolen from different self drive agencies in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal in 2020.