Bengaluru: If you are planning to buy a used four-wheeler, make sure you properly check the total number of kilometres the vehicle has run. With cars that have run less costing more, odometer tampering is rampant in the business of selling used vehicles, as businessman Suresh (name changed), 40, from Rajajinagar learnt.
Suresh purchased a Toyota Innova for nearly Rs 8 lakh in February this year from Sagar Auto Consultancy in Mahalakshmi Layout, off West of Chord Road. Proprietor N Rajanna, 54, of Geddalahalli in Sanjaynagar, told Suresh the SUV had run just 1.6 lakh km and the odometer confirmed it.
A few days later, Suresh took the Innova to a service centre in West of Chord Road, where he was told the vehicle had run more than 2.7 lakh km and its odometer had been tampered with. Incidentally, the staff had serviced the car at the centre before Suresh purchased it.
Suresh contacted the Innova’s previous owner who told him he had sold the vehicle to Rajanna and it had indeed run more than 2.7 lakh km.
Suresh returned to Rajanna, who confessed to tampering with the meter and promised to return his money. Suresh gave the vehicle back to Rajanna, who promised to repay him the full amount but didn’t do so. Suresh subsequently filed a cheating complaint against him.
Mahalakshmi Layout police arrested Rajanna on Sunday and seized the vehicle. “This is the fourth FIR against Rajanna in recent months. The other three were also cheating cases, where he sold damaged vehicles and failed to repay the money when they were returned,” a police officer said.
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