Alert cop nabs vehicle thief

Policeman intercepts culprit, who runs out of petrol, seven hours after stealing motorbike

Old habits die hard. And it was amply proved by Sushilkumar Sheetal Patil (26) who 21 days after he was released from the Yerawada Central Prison was caught by the traffic police for stealing a motorbike.


Always watchful: Traffic Police Constable S B Kumbhar at the Vishrambaug
Police Station. Pic/Vivek Sabnis

Seven hours after he made away with a motorbike belonging to Yogesh Chavan, a resident of Chavan Nagar, Patil rode straight into the hands of traffic policeman, Shankar Kumbhar.

Ran out of fuel
Kumbhar intercepted him at Tilak Chowk around 5 pm because Patil ran out of petrol and was disrupting the traffic flow. During interrogation, Patil was not able to produce the vehicle papers. He confessed to his crime and said he had got duplicate keys made from a key-maker near Shaniwar Wada last morning. He then stole the bike, which was parked near Dr Ambedkar statue opposite Sassoon Hospital. After he stole the bike, he used it for the next seven hours before he ran out of petrol.

Successful attempt
"This is my second successful effort to catch a vehicle thief in the past 30 days," Kumbhar said. "It is the marriage season and people carelessly park their vehicles and this leads to the most vehicle thefts in the city."
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manoj Patil congratulated Kumbhar for his alertness and said other policemen on traffic duty should keep strict vigil.