NAVI MUMBAI, Feb. 5 -- Busting an organised vehicle theft racket, the Navi Mumbai police have arrested four people and recovered 21 motorcycles and five autorikshaws worth a total of Rs.40.46 lakh. The arrests are linked to over 23 cases of vehicle theft reported in Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Mumbai. According to the police, the accused have been identified as Santosh Dhole, 45, who claimed to be a vehicle recovery agent, Laxman Masalkar, 34, who operated a vehicle service centre, Sanjeev Saxena, 52, who was engaged in selling vegetables, and Kailas Chaudhary, 38, a shopkeeper. The police said that the gang leader, Dhole, watched social media videos and taught himself the techniques to steal vehicles. Dhole would coordinate the theft with his associates and to avoid suspicion he would change the number plates of the stolen vehicles and replace them with the plates of vehicles registered in his own name. Using this technique, the accused would then sell off the stolen vehicles and cheat unsuspecting buyers. The racket came to light during the investigation of a vehicle theft registered at the Kharghar police station. As the police scanned CCTV footage during a probe into another vehicle theft, the crime branch was led to the Kolegaon area of Dombivli. The police then recovered 18 stolen motorcycles and five stolen auto-rickshaws from the area. The four accused are currently in police custody till February 6 said the police. In a separate case, the crime branch arrested Naser Sadan Khan, 58, a habitual offender with over 92 previous vehicle theft cases registered against him. While investigating Khan, the police recovered 17 stolen motorcycles worth Rs.5.82 lakh and filed 14 cases of theft which were primarily registered at Kharghar and APMC police stations. The police said that Khan previously ran a garage and used his technical expertise to erase the engine and chassis numbers of stolen motorcycles to destroy their identity before selling them....