The Gujarat high court is going to decide on who can get the custody of a car, which was purchased from stolen money – the person who was robbed off the money or the one who allegedly stole money and purchased the vehicle. The case involves a resident of Satellite area, Sharadchandra Shah, from whose house cash and jewellery worth Rs 19.5 lakh were stolen. He had filed an FIR with Anandnagar police station. 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 theft from various places including from Shah’s house. When cops questioned about the stolen money, Makwana revealed that he purchased a car worth Rs 11 lakh from the money on the occasion of his son Sanjay’s marriage. His vehicle was registered in Sanjay’s name. Cops took the car into custody along with other articles from Makwana. After this revelation, Shah approached a magisterial court in Mirzapur and requested to give the possession of the car to him claiming that the accused had admitted that the car was purchased from the money stolen from his house. Sanjay, the registered owner of the vehicle, raised an objection to Shah’s demand. He told the court that he was a registered owner of the car and the vehicle’s custody should be handed over to him. On May 16, the magisterial court rejected Shah’s application and ordered cops to give custody of the car to Sanjay because the vehicle was registered in his name. This brought Shah to the high court claiming custody 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 notice to the state government and Sanjay Makwana and posed the matter for final hearing on July 30, said Shah’s advocate Rajesh Savjani.