Owners leave empty-handed; AAP’s stolen tyres ‘return event’ turns into photo-op

An event to handover stolen tyres to vehicle owners turned out to be more of a sham than a goodwill gesture as Aam Aadmi Party workers turned it into a photo-op. However, after the event ended the vehicle owners, who had been invited on the promise of receiving the tyres stolen from their vehicles, had to return home empty-handed as they were told that they would only get possession of the tyres through court orders. As per police official, the tyres were taken back to the police station.

Interestingly, today an invite was shared by the Public Relations Department that stated, “On Thursday, August 21, 2025, at 10.30 am, MLA Chaudhary Madan Lal Bagga from the North constituency and Ludhiana Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma are arriving near Mohini Plaza. They will be returning the tyres that were stolen recently to their owners and listening to the issues of the constituency.” The CP, however, did not attended the event.

Harpreet Singh, a resident of Guru Nanak Pura, who was also invited to the event organised by the AAP, told The Tribune that thieves had stolen four tyres from his newly bought ScorpioN on August 12. A case was registered at police division-8 against the unidentified thieves. Recently, the police had busted a gang of thieves and 31 tyres stolen by the gang in the recent past were recovered.

“I received multiple calls from the police yesterday asking me to reach Mohini Palace to get the stolen tyres back. As I reached the spot, AAP leaders and police officials clicked photographs with me and a few other complainants. After the event ended, the complainants asked the police to handover their tyres to them, only to be told that was not possible as these were police property and they would have to procure court orders in order to return these,” said Harpreet.

Questioning why the complainants had been invited to the event when the tyres could not be handed over to them, he said, “It seemed the leaders just wanted a photo opportunity.”

When this correspondent tried to contact MLA Bagga he didn’t not answer the call. Although, later an official statement was released by the PR Department, stating, “A few days ago, tyres from seven different types of vehicles were stolen. When the matter came to the attention of MLA Bagga, he immediately instructed the police administration to take prompt action and arrest the thieves and recovered the stolen tyres.”

A senior police official, requesting anonymity, said the tyres would be handed over to the complainants as soon as the police would speed up the process to procure the court orders (superdari). They said leaders had asked the police to hold the event so that they could take credit for the job.