The condemned vehicles sold by insurance companies under the total loss policy are being used by thieves to cover their crime by using registration number and chassis number of such vehicles lying at the scrap dealer’s shop in the city and surrounding areas.
Going by the records of regional office II of National Insurance Company, 605 vehicles in Chandigarh were sold to scrap dealers in 2011-2012 under the total loss policy of the company.
However, no registration of the sold vehicles were cancelled by registration authority. If you combine the insurance records of other companies, the figures would be much more.
As per the law, vehicles with more than 75 per cent damage are sold to scrap dealers by insurance company under the total loss policy, under which the insurance company provides the total cost of the vehicle to the insurance holder.
Under Section 55 of Motor vehicle Act, the registration of such condemned vehicle should be cancelled by registration authorities.
“However, not obeying the law, the insurance companies sell the damaged vehicles to the scrap dealers without cancelling the registration number. The registration and chassis numbers of the vehicles are used by the vehicle thieves to hide their crime by putting the registration number on stolen vehicles," said Radhe Shyam Garg, surveyor of an Insurance company.
The modus operandi of criminals is that they steal vehicles from various States and later procure the registration and chassis number of a condemned vehicle from scrap dealer, registration number is later put on stolen vehicles, he alleged.
The stolen cars are then sold to other people with new registration number.
Recently in the first week of April, Chandigarh police arrested five members of an interstate gang of thieves from Chandigarh who allegedly sold the stolen vehicles to genuine people after modification of Registration number and engine number of the vehicle.
The gang also used to remove its engine and chassis numbers and put on it the numbers of condemned vehicles lying in scrap.
The police officials deputed on check posts do not check engine number and chassis numbers of the vehicles.
However, talking with The Pioneer, SSP Traffic and security, Maneesh Chauhary confirmed that the officials on check post duty are directed to check the registration numbers of the suspect vehicles on the spot, also the chassis and engine numbers of it should be checked by them.