Good riddance: India’s most wanted car thief finally apprehended by Guwahati police

Anil Chauhan (left) and his accomplice Mamud Choudhury were arrested last week.

That dude on the left of the above picture is no ordinary car thief. What he is in fact, is India’s most wanted and perhaps the richest car thief in the country. If anyone can set an example of doing bad deeds, then becoming wealthy and finally being nabbed by the authorities, it is this 45 year-old man. Chauhan started off as an innocent tuk-tuk (Delhi parlance for auto-rickshaws) driver in Delhi over 25 years ago. As with most criminals, this guy doesn’t have much in the way of education and is a high school dropout. However, he did learn the trick of producing duplicate keys and as luck would have it, that trick did come in handy when he figured tuk-tuk driving wasn’t earning him much.

Chauhan used to drive a tuk-tuk in Delhi, but apparently that wasn’t satisfactory enough.

From his humble beginnings in 1985 till the time he was arrested, Chauhan and his grand theft auto gang have been found guilty for stealing over 4000 cars. All of this car nicking made Chauhan quite a well-heeled man and owns several properties throughout the country, most of them in and around the city of Guwahati. Ironically, Maruti launched the 800 hatchback just as Chauhan got into grand theft auto and stole several 800s during his time. Apart from Delhi, Chauhan nicked several cars from Mumbai, too. Police say that his gang nicked vehicles from parking lots from various areas of Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad. They would then change the number plates and whisk away the vehicles to other states, several wound up in the northeast states.

Chauhan began his criminal career by stealing Maruti 800s during the 1980s.

However, after more than two decades of stealing cars, fate caught up to him and Chauhan was arrested by Guwahati police last week. Chauhan and one of his ‘esteemed’ accomplices were driving around in a Hyundai Eon (possibly a stolen one) on the outskirts of Guwahati. The police found a couple of pistols and some ammunition, along with four ATM cards and four mobile phones. This man’s arrest is a welcome news for every car owner in the country and hopefully he hasn’t passed on his ‘skills’ to anyone else.

Source: Indian Express