Who would think that the smartly-dressed guy driving off from a fancy hotel in a fancy car is actually a repeat offender, who’s about to carry out another heist? Thus is the interesting the story of Satyendra Singh Shekhawat.
Shekhawat, an MBA graduate and seasoned car-thief, was arrested on Monday after the Crime Branch seized an Audi Q7 that was reportedly stolen from the Holiday Inn Hotel at Aerocity near Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The cops claimed that Shekhawat stole luxury cars while slipping past unsuspecting valets at luxury hotels. He then sold the cars, which were mostly used to transport narcotic substances from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the belief that police or law agencies seldom checked luxury vehicles.
Eight recent cases of car theft have been solved with the arrest of Shekhawat, who has been arrested thrice earlier, reported the police.
Dressed in a suit, Shekhawat would pretend to be in a conversation with a client as he did a recce of the hotel parking, said joint commissioner Ravindra Yadav. He added:
He would pick up a key from the key hanger after distracting the valet in a conversation and then walk around the parking lot pressing the remote key to locate the car before driving off with it.
CCTV footage from the Holiday Inn showed a person talking on a mobile phone near the valet desk before carefully picking up the car keys. Observing a similar modus operandi in car thefts in other cities, the police traced the robberies to Shekhawat, from Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Tipped off on Shekhawat’s forthcoming robbery plans from another luxury hotel in Delhi, the police nabbed him in the Audi that was reported stolen from Holiday Inn hotel.
During the interrogation, Shekhawat admitted that he had earlier been arrested by the police of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan for theft, robbery and assault.
Source: Times of India, Hindustan Times