What drives ownership of car bought with stolen money?

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court is going to decide who can get possession of a car bought using stolen money – the person who was robbed of the money, or the son of the thief who admitted he bought the car from the stolen money?

The case involves a resident of Satellite, Sharadchandra Shah, from whose house cash and jewellery worth Rs 19.5 lakh was stolen. He had registered an FIR with Anandnagar police station.

A few months later, the city crime branch arrested one Suresh Makwana on suspicion of his involvement in multiple thefts in the city.


Makwana admitted to having committed thefts in various places including Shah’s house.

When police questioned him about the stolen money, Makwana said he had used the money to purchase a car worth Rs 11 lakh for his son, Sanjay, as a wedding gift.

Police seized the car and other articles from Makwana.

After this revelation, Shah approached a magisterial court at the Mirzapur rural court campus and requested possession of the car, claiming that the accused had admitted the car was purchased from money stolen from his house.

Sanjay, the registered owner of the vehicle, raised objections to Shah’s demand.

He told the court that he was the registered owner of the car and possession of the vehicle should be handed over to him. On May 16, the magisterial court rejected Shah’s application and ordered cops to give possession of the car to Sanjay because the vehicle was registered in his name.

This brought Shah to the high court, demanding possession of the car. On his behalf, it was submitted that the car was purchased from his money, and the alleged thief’s son cannot claim custody merely because the vehicle was registered in his name.

Justice R P Dholaria admitted the case, issued notices to the state government and Sanjay Makwana and posted the matter for final hearing on July 30, said Shah’s advocate, Rajesh Savjani.