Calcutta, July 25: Howrah police today busted a car racket with the arrest of three persons from the Mominpur and Pathar Pratima areas of South 24-Parganas. Officials said the carjackers would sell the stolen cars in other states.

Early today, a Matador van passing down Drainage Canal Road, in the Chatterjeehat area, was stopped by two men. The duo, who had been following in another van, caught hold of the driver and his assistant, dragged them out of the Matador, and beat them up. Then then sped away in the Matador.

The van they came in had already left the spot.

A complaint was lodged with the local police. A special team of officers raided a garage in Mominpur and recovered the Matador, which had been given a fresh coat of paint.

“After checking that the van was the one snatched in Howrah, we arrested garage-owner Ramniwas Gupta,” said an officer.

The other two arrested men, Jagai Haldar and Sattar, were both rounded up from Patharpratima on charges of snatching and selling a number of cars and vans from Howrah and other places.

Police also took into custody Kamalendu Sarkar, owner of the van used by the carjackers to arrive on the spot of the crime.

During interrogation, Sarkar admitted that he had rented the Matador to Jagai Haldar, a driver known to him, on Saturday night for ferrying goods outside the state. “How would I know that he’d use my vehicle to steal another?” asked Sarkar.

Confirming that this type of racket prevails throughout the state, Howrah superintendent of police Mihir Kumar Bhattacharya said: “This is not the first case in Howrah. Recently, seven persons were arrested for making off with oil tankers on the highways. But we are trying our best to check these car thefts.”

Inquiries revealed that for the past year, about 200 motorcycles, 100 Matadors, 150 cars (including taxis) and a number of heavy vehicles were stolen from Howrah by these racketeers.

Police said the actual figure would read alarmingly if calculated over the past five years, but pleaded helplessness in checking the cases due to pressure from political quarters.

“We need to know how many others are involved before we can effectively smash these gangs of carjackers,” superintendent Bhattacharya said.