The detective department busted an inter-state car theft racket and arrested four persons, including a city-based businessman, who sleuths said was the kingpin. In raids conducted over the past few days, they recovered 17 stolen vehicles.

According to a senior officer of the motor-theft wing of the detective department, the intelligence wing of the city police led the sleuths to round up Tinku Verma from his Justice Chandra Madhab Road residence early this month. “He was the man running the operation. After stealing the vehicles from different parts of the city, he would smuggle them out to Bihar and Jharkhand. There, his associates would sell off the vehicles for a good price,” the officer said.

His interrogation put sleuths on to the other members of the gang — Vicky Biswas of Karaya, Abul Kalam and Manoj Kumar Mahato of Bokaro, in Jharkhand. “These three would appoint others to get the registration number of the vehicles changed and change the car colour. Some others helped them forge the cars’ papers. So far, we have recovered a Tata Sumo, two Maruti vans, 12 Maruti cars and two two-wheelers,” the officer added.

“All the four are adept at stealing vehicles,” he said. A few of the cars were recovered from Dhanbad and Bokaro, while the others were found in different parts of Calcutta.