Gang involved in 500 vehicle thefts busted

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Friday busted an inter-state syndicate of vehicle thieves  known to operate in North India and northeastern states, especially Nagaland and Manipur.

As many as 30 stolen vehicles were seized from them. The police also seized a laptop, punching keys, tools used for unlocking doors of cars  and starting their engines, grinding and drill machi-nes and chassis numbers of stolen cars.

The police arrested 11 members of the gang were arrested over a period of a fortnight. They were identified as Mohammad Sibbu, Aamir, Safiq, Mohammad Arzad Ali, YM Sabir Ahmed, both from Manipur, Asrar Hussain, Kewal Kamal, Vinay Kumar, Tarun Seoran, Rakesh Kumar, and Atul Chunni Bhai Movalia.

The gang indulged in stealing to re-selling the stolen vehicles. Their job included lifting autorickshaws, receivers, carriers. They were also experts in tampering with engine and chassis numbers and punching new numbers of them.  

The gang has successfully stolen and sold more than 500 cars, including SUVs Fortuner and Innova, in the past two years.

Additional commissioner of police (crime) Alok Kumar said there are three tiers of operators involved in vehicle thefts. “First, those who steal the vehicles as per demands. The second tier if of those who tamper with the engine and chassis numbers of stolen vehicles and thr third who procure original documents of vehicles from their contacts in insurance firms.”

“The stolen vehicles are re-registered using the same documents. Then comes the network of car dealers across the country. They bring the vehicles to their respective states and sell them to potential buyers as genuine vehicles,” Mr Kumar added.

As per Mr Kumar, “Our team got inputs about this syndicate following interrogation of members of another gang of vehicles thieves, led by Sukhdev from Amritsar, Punjab, who were arrested in March this year. The Sukhdev gang was assisted in the Delhi-NCR region by members of the Kewal gang.”