By Pooja Bhula
Shillong: With the car theft racket taking a new dimension with the alleged involvement of even an advocate identified as Tariqul Islam, who was arrested on Saturday, The Shillong Times made an attempt to analyze the trend.
As per the information provided by the police, Meghalaya has recorded 568 cases of stolen vehicles from 2009 to August 2012 alone, whereas in the six years before 2009 between 2003 and 2008 the total number of cases registered is 438.
Ironically the period of increase in theft coincides with the rapid increase in purchase of private vehicles. Information with the State Crime Records Bureau points out that certain regions in East Khasi Hills, West Garo Hills and East Jaintia Hills combined make for 50.88%(289) of the cases.
95 of the 289 vehicles were stolen from Sadar, Laitumkrah and Lumdiengjri areas of East Khasi Hills. SP of East Khasi Hills, Mariahom Kharkrang said, “This is happening because people don’t have a proper place to park cars and many of them are parked on the road.”
When asked about the pattern followed by these thieves he said, “Vehicles are usually stolen between 1 am and 5 am. So keep a check at night, because it will force them to wait till next afternoon to take the car out. Most thefts happen in active connivance with people from outside, only the link man is from here. They come to the city for a very brief period and the three areas mentioned here have mixed population, so it becomes very easy for them to mingle without being suspected.”
Boleros are most popular targets in East Khasi Hills and sold in other north eastern states for Rs.2lakhs -Rs. 3lakhs. Whereas, in West Garo Hills, bikes especially Bajaj Pulsars are picked up more often.
IGP of West Garo Hills, F D Sangma, also cites lack of parking space as a reason for thefts in Tura, which alone accounts for 158 stolen vehicles.
Another reason he mentions is, “the gang leaders here are yet to be caught because most vehicles go to Bangladesh; they are also taken to Goalpara (Assam) and Dimapur(Nagaland), in fact Dimapur is market for most stolen vehicles. Although facilitators would be from here, locals don’t go to sell these vehicles, these thefts take place at midnight, when there are no lights or when it is raining.”
About cars that come from East Khasi Hills, SP, East Khasi Hills, M Kharkrang said, “80% of the cars go to other states of the North East and the rest could be in other parts of India. They have to go to different places because they need different markets. “
Vehicles stolen from Khliehriat in East Jaintia Hills in the same period (2003-2008) added up to 36. The current SP of the region didn’t have much information regarding the region because the division has taken place only recently and he took up the post in August.
While Kharkrang admits that vehicles are being stolen despite the High Sensitivity Registration Plates, he says, “Standardisation does help because it would be very difficult to track vehicles if it can be made in several different ways.”
In one of the cases that was resolved the police found the thief with 50 different keys, they wouldn’t even have to hotwire the car to start it.
As per police procedure cases of vehicle theft are closed after 90 days and in case they find the perpetrators or the vehicle they re-open them. “At times we have got vehicles back even after 1 year,” said Kharkrang.