New Delhi: The Delhi Police have found the vehicle stolen from Bharatiya Janata Party chief J.P. Nadda’s wife at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. One of the three it has arrested for the crime is a Class 10 dropout who could not continue with studies due to poverty.
Press Trust of India has reported that three men were arrested for stealing the SUV – Shivansh Tripathi (23), Saleem (34), and Mohammad Raees (33).
On March 19, Mallika Nadda’s car, a white Toyota Fortuner was stolen from southeast Delhi’s Govindpuri.
The car’s driver, Joginder, had left it at a service centre and returned home briefly when it was picked up.
Police told PTI that the accused are habitual offenders in auto-lifting. Another stolen car, a Creta, which was used to commit the theft was also recovered.
A special team of the anti-auto theft squad (AATS) of the Southeast district was created and during investigation, several CCTV cameras were analysed, Indian Express reported on the chase. Following their trail, the team reached Budkal in Faridabad, Haryana, and received clues about possible auto lifters.
It is noteworthy that according to PTI, police noted that one of the accused, Tripathi, who is a resident of UP’s Hardoi, had dropped out after Class 10 due to his family’s poor financial condition. India’s unemployment numbers are at a record high.
As reported earlier by The Wire, vehicle thefts in India have surged by 2.5 times in the calendar year (CY) 2023 compared to CY 2022, with New Delhi witnessing the maximum number of thefts.
Reports have termed Delhi – law and order of which is looked after by the Narendra Modi government – “the crime capital of India”, citing the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Report, 2022.
Varanasi, meanwhile, is the Lok Sabha constituency under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
