Vehicle fraud case: Seven persons arrested

Seven persons, alleged to be part of an inter-state gang, involved in vehicle fraud have been arrested and 23 automobiles, including a few luxury cars have been recovered.
The arrests were made by a special team formed a month ago to investigate complaints of vehicles being stolen after they were taken on rent from 'Rent-A-Car' service centres.
"The gang members were arrested from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The vehicles were recovered from Kuppam in Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh," an official press release from Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said here today.
Of the seven arrested, two are from Kuppam, one from Bangalore and the others from Malappuram district in Kerala, the release said.

One Shabeer (31) hailing from Malappuram, who was taken into custody from Tamil Nadu, was stated to be the brain behind the fraud, it said.
Their modus operandi was to hire a car from service centres and take them to neighbouring states where they would rent it out for sums ranging between Rs two lakh to Rs five lakh, the release said.