Bhubaneswar, May 28: An unidentified and nattily dressed conman allegedly sped away with the sports utility vehicle (SUV) of a city businessman on the pretext of taking a test drive, police said today.
The accused contacted the businessman Subodh Sahu, 39, after the latter posted an advertisement on a classified website to sell his luxury car.
Though Sahu had posted the advertisement on April, the conman had contacted him on May 16, while he was in Lucknow on business.
“He had been calling me frequently and said that he was interested to buy my car after seeing the advertisement in the website. Later, I asked my driver to contact him on his mobile number,” said Sahu.
Later on the day of incident, the conman arrived in a private vehicle and rang Sahu, who was still in Lucknow.
“I asked my driver to show him the vehicle near Baramunda. My driver told me that the person was properly dressed and had come with a mechanic. The mechanic checked the vehicle thoroughly and asked my driver to give the keys for a test drive. Subsequently, he drove towards Fire Station Square and did not return,” Sahu said, who had recently quit his managerial post in a Paradip-based steel plant. After the conman fled with the car, Sahu rang up his family members and told them about the incident. Sahu’s family members had promptly brought the incident to the notice of officers at Khandagiri police station.
Acting on the complaint, police interrogated the driver of the hired vehicle in which the conman had come and the mechanic.
“Investigations revealed that he had hired the vehicle from Badambadi in Cuttack. Besides, the conman had hired the mechanic from the city. The theft was a deliberate plot and, therefore, he did not take the mechanic or Sahu’s driver along when he went for the test drive,” said a police official.
A complaint in this connection has been registered with Khandagiri police station.
Earlier in May last year, the police had busted a gang involved in a number of car thefts. The gang was led by a con woman, Rajlaxmi Swain, 22, who used to introduce herself as a software professional and claimed that she was working at Fortune Tower, where many government and corporate offices are located.
She had hired a car in front of Fortune Tower and had asked the car driver to halt near a sweet shop in Mancheswar and sent the driver to fetch some sweets for her. Later, she fled with the car.
The police had arrested Swain and three of her male accomplices from Cuttack and seized the car from them.
The police said that Swain was the mastermind of the gang, whose members also included a woman.