Mumbai Traffic Police has registered a complaint in a case. A Mumbai Traffic Police towing van was allegedly stolen by a man from Madhya Pradesh who was caught while trying to flee to the neighboring state, it said, adding that the vehicle was recovered from Mumbai after the accused met a man. Was recovered 120 kilometers away. Accident at Kasara Ghat on Mumbai-Agra Highway in Maharashtra.
Police said the towing vehicle of the Wadala traffic division was parked outside its office near the Eastern Freeway in Sewri. “After completing the daily routine inspection, the towing van driver parked the vehicle at the Sewri office and securely stored its keys inside a cupboard within the office,” an officer explained.
Later, the local police station received a call that the towing vehicle had gone missing between 6 and 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Police started searching in the surrounding areas, but could not find anything. On scanning the CCTV footage, they discovered that the towing vehicle had been stolen by several unknown persons.
“We spread a wireless message to police stations in Mumbai and neighboring districts, following which, we came to know that the stolen vehicle had crashed at Kasara Ghat at 3.30 am… We checked/verified the registration number of the vehicle and found out that It was owned by the Mumbai traffic department,” said another officer.
A team of officials was immediately sent to the spot and the vehicle was recovered. The driver, identified as Monu Pandit Upadhyay, a native of Deori village in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, was taken into custody. He appears to be “mentally unsound”, with police suspecting that the accused was fleeing to his hometown with the vehicle.
“We learned that an associate of the accused has absconded,” another officer said, adding that police were trying to find out Upadhyay’s role in the case and the reason behind committing the crime.
Confirming the development, senior inspector Balurao Ghagare of Sewri police station said, “We have sent a team of officers to Kasara for further investigation. We have not made any arrests in the case yet.”
