Vijay Ramlal Dhavan, who runs a real estate firm, was arrested in Delhi on June 1 and brought to Mumbai for stealing a Mercedes registered in his name, Hindustan Times (HT) quoted senior inspector Bhagwat Bansod of RAK Marg police station as saying. “Dhavan was produced in court in Mumbai on June 6 and was remanded in police custody till June 9, and the car has been seized,” Bansod said.

On May 25, Dhavan asked two business acquaintances, Zulfiqar Abdul Waqil Ahmed and Lal Bahadur Singh, to transport his Mercedes to Mumbai on the pretext of his friend needing the car for a day. The duo reached Mumbai on the afternoon of May 26 and checked into a community lodge on RAK Marg, specified by Dhavan.

The next morning, the car was missing and police believe Dhavan stole it using a second set of keys.

On May 27, Ahmed and Singh filed a police complaint on Dhavan’s insistence. The RAK Marg police station registered an offence of theft against unknown persons but got suspicious that the Mercedes had been brought to Mumbai from Delhi for a friend.

They contacted a Mercedes showroom and found out that this particular model car can only be opened using one set of keys, according to HT.

The police also learnt that Dhavan had recently ordered a second set of keys.

“The police then scanned the CCTV footage at toll plazas and spotted Dhavan driving the Mercedes out of Mumbai on May 27. A team led by assistant police inspector Rajesh Khande and police sub-inspector Pratap Lamture left for Delhi on May 29, nabbed Dhavan on June 1.”