Police arrested a 29-year-old man on Saturday on the suspicion that he had stolen the hydraulic tank of a dumper four days ago, but ended up recovering a huge haul of stolen automobile parts from his house at Namda Bustee in Golmuri.

Luvprit Singh was sent to Ghaghidih Central Jail after being produced before a judicial magistrate.

Sharing the breakthrough with the media in the evening, superintendent of police (city) Subhash Chandra Jat said they had started their probe after receiving on July 15 a complaint that a hydraulic tank of a dumper had been stolen from Golmuri

“Police on July 15 duly registered a case of theft based on an FIR filed by dumper owner Sunil Pandey. During the course of the investigation, police got a tip-off that Namda youth Luvprit was involved. A police team raided his house early this morning (Saturday) and arrested the thief,' said Jat.

Police then discovered the youth’s house was a veritable warehouse of stolen auto spare parts.

City SP Jat said while arresting Luvprit the police not only recovered the stolen hydraulic tank, but also batteries, tyres of sports utility vehicles, alloy wheels of jeep tyres, mobile filters, radiators, electronic weighing machine, hose pipes and nozzle pipes and several other automobile spares.

The senior police officer said Luvprit on interrogation had confessed he worked as a part of a gang.

The arrested youth added that one of his associates had just gone out of the steel city on a Tata Motors chassis (the base frame of a heavy vehicle before other components are added to it).

The city SP said they immediately set up checkpoints on National Highway 33 from Jamshedpur to Ranchi, based on Luvprit’s inputs, to apprehend the absconding aide.

But, the police have not been successful. “During the checking drive, we came across a chassis lying abandoned near Rangaon. The driver was missing. Actually, Luvprit’s associate had escaped,” said the city SP.