Maharashtra: Man arrested for stealing Rs 2 crore MSRTC Shivshahi e-bus from Nagpur

A man with a history of criminal offences has been arrested for allegedly stealing a Rs 2 crore electric bus belonging to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation an official saidThe Shivshahi ebus was stolen from the Imamwada bus stand in Nagpur on Wednesday night when the vehicle was being charged After being alerted the Ganesh Peth police in the city registered a case and relayed the information to other police stations in the region he saidPolice said the bus was driven to Amravati over 150 km awayA team found the bus a little away from the Rajapeth bus stand in Amravati Soon a man was seen entering the bus He was taken into custody The man has confessed to stealing as many as 20 buses across Telangana Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra said inspector Sandip Chavan from Rajapeth police stationThe man is accused of stealing a bus under Tirumala crime police station limits in Tirupati in 202324 and within the jurisdiction of Wazirabad police station in Maharashtras Nanded in 2026 the official saidHe appears to be an interstate bus thief We are now circulating messages across the state and country to see if more vehicles have been stolen in similar circumstances His modus operandi is to strip the vehicle of spare parts His motive for stealing ebuses is for the batteries which cost around Rs 1 crore the official addedTwo held from Gujarat for stealing highend SUV using sophisticated key cloning mechanismIn another case two persons were arrested from Rajkot in Gujarat in connection with the theft of a Toyota Fortuner worth Rs 45 lakh a Mumbai police official said on ThursdayThe vehicle which was stolen from Khar West has been recovered following the arrest of Dip Ramnikbhai Agher 28 and Rahul Bharatbhai Ghiyal 29 both residents of Rajkot he addedAgher is a habitual offender with at least five criminal cases registered against him in different states Ghiyal is also a wanted accused in a case registered at Sarthana police station in Gujarat The probe into the case began after a Toyota Fortuner used by a showroom in Khar West for customer test drives went missing he saidTechnical intelligence and CCTV footage helped police obtain an image of the accused who was subsequently identified as a habitual offender with a criminal record he saidPreliminary analysis of CCTV footage indicated that the accused had used a sophisticated key signal cloning device to unlock and steal the SUV without using the original key he addedThe vehicle was driven towards Gujarat through the Dahisar toll plaza The accused replaced the original registration plate with a fake number plate However the vehicle was successfully tracked and identified through its unique distinguishing features The vehicle kept at a spot near Bilimora Road in Chikhli Navsari district around 300 kilometres away from Rajkot was recovered the official saidThe investigation further revealed that one of the accused possessed advanced technical expertise and used specialised electronic equipment and coding techniques to breach the vehicles security systemThe other accused allegedly specialised in disabling security features changing number plates and tampering with chassis identification details to conceal the vehicles identity the official saidWith inputs from PTI