THANE: An RTO clerk, two agents and their seven associates were arrested on Friday for stealing 34 commercial vehicles. The gang did everything from stealing the trucks and dumpers to tampering with their chassis numbers to selling them using forging documents and then registering them, said an official of the Thane crime branch.The police suspect involvement of senior transport officials in the racket. They have seized 10 vehicles, collectively worth Rs 3.25 crore.The gang forged vehicle registration documents and obtained no-objection certificates from the RTO in Buldhana. The vehicles were then registered at the RTO in Nandurbar , added the official.Additional commissioner of police Makrand Ranade said that while investigating a vehicle theft case that was registered at Bhiwandi police station, they found documents of six dumpers in the dickey of the scooter of an accused, Ali Hussein . The dumpers were registered at the RTO in Nagpur Rural.A team led by senior in- spector Shital Raut found that all the documents were forged and a case was registered at Narpoli police station.“One team was supposed to steal vehicles from various parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh . The other one would alter the chassis numbers and sell them off using forged documents. The two RTO agents looked after registration of the vehicles in connivance with the RTO clerk,” said deputy commissioner of police Abhishek Trimukhe.“We searched for the accused in Aurangabad, Dhule, Nashik, Buldhana and Nan- durbar. We came to know that the gang had stolen 34 vehicles on the basis of forged documents,” said Raut.“Out of the 34 vehicles, 28 were registered at the RTO in Nandurbar on the basis of a bogus no-objection certificate (NOC) prepared at the Beed RTO. The remaining six were registered at Buldhana RTO using bogus documents,” Trimukhe added.“We have seized all the forged documents from RTOs in Nandurbar and Buldhana. We are trying to trace the original owners,” said an officer.The engines and chassis numbers of the seized stolen vehicles were verified at a Jamshedpur plant, which confirmed the tampering. The gang also took bank loans using the stolen vehicles as guarantees, added the officer.In 1999, the officials at Dombivli police station busted a similar racket and seized several stolen vehicles. However, the prime accused fled from the police’s custody.

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