3 held for cheating car owners by promising good returns

Three persons have been arrested in Maharashtra's Thane district for allegedly cheating private car owners after hiring the vehicles with a promise of good returns, police said Tuesday.

Acting on some complaints, the police launched a probe and found that the accused used to lure people by taking their cars on rent to be used as tourist vehicles.

In return, the accused promised good financial returns to the car owners, Kasarwadavali police station's senior inspector Kishore Khairnar said.

However, when the car owners neither got the money nor their vehicle, they realised that they were cheated and approached the police, he said.

"The modus operandi of the accused was to sell these cars and run away with the money," he said.

Following the probe, the police arrested the three accused, Naresh Shetty (32) and Bhaskar Pawar (28) and Tarkeshwar Pandey (27), here on Sunday, he said, adding that two cars were also seized from their possession.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention), he said.