# Man arrested in Odisha for renting and stealing car 2026-08-23T14:55:14+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Odisha Police have arrested Mandeep Choudhury from Angul for allegedly renting a self-drive car in Bhubaneswar and then stealing it. The accused tried to hide the vehicle's number plate with black tape, but was identified through CCTV footage. Police traced the stolen vehicle on August 20 and arrested Choudhury after raids. Four criminal cases are already pending against him at three police stations. The car has been recovered. ## Indian Opinion Analysis This is a routine arrest but highlights a growing risk in India's unregulated self-drive car rental market. Rentals often lack real-time vehicle tracking or mandatory police verification of customers, making theft easy. With four prior cases, the accused was a repeat offender known to police but still able to rent a car. The real gap is enforcement: rental companies rarely check criminal records. Watch if Odisha's transport department mandates GPS tracking and background checks for rental cars, as other states like Karnataka have proposed. ## Coverage - odishatv.in Straightforward crime report with no editorial slant, presents police version of events without critique or drama. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Angul, Bhubaneswar, Chandaka Police, Odisha Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/man-arrested-in-odisha-for-renting-and-stealing-car/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/man-arrested-in-odisha-for-renting-and-stealing-car/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/