A 23-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday from Kali Temple Road in Kalighat for allegedly stealing at least three yellow taxis from Bhowanipore last week, police said.
The first of the three was stolen on November 10, and the last, six days later, on November 16, the police said.
Raj Kumar Sardar was arrested three days after the last of the three taxi thefts was reported to the police.
During the interrogation, it emerged that the man, originally from Charaghata in Joynagar, South 24-Parganas, was involved in stealing another taxi, the police said. The theft was reported on November 11, and a complaint was lodged with Tollygunge police station.
“The first theft was reported on November 10, the second on November 15 and the last one on November 16. All the complaints were lodged at Bhowanipore police station,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.
The two taxis, stolen on November 10 and 15, were traced to separate locations on Monoharpukur Road and Mahim Halder Street. The third was recovered from a spot on Gurupada Halder Road in Kalighat.
“Raj Kumar, also known as Raju to his friends, had developed a skill of rolling down the glass panes of a yellow taxi, unlocking the steering, and driving the vehicle away. We are trying to find out whether he did it by himself or was a part of a bigger gang,” the police officer said.
Senior officers probing the serial theft said that since they came to light, separate teams tried to identify the lifter based on electronic surveillance and activating sources around Bhowanipore and its adjoining areas.
In the aftermath of the Delhi blasts, it was key to find out whether the stolen yellow taxis were being shifted out of the city or being resold, officers said.
“After tracking the accused for some time, a team reached his accommodation on Kali Temple Road and arrested him,” the officer said.
“We will interrogate him to find out if he had stolen more such yellow cabs in the past, either in Calcutta or somewhere nearby, and who his customers were,” said the officer.
A group of yellow taxi drivers in Bhowanipore said the ones stolen were over 10 years old, and were parked on the roads, like several others, in the Puddapukur area of Bhowanipore at night. The door lock was opened after rolling down one of the windows, and the vehicles were stolen, a few taxi drivers said.