Delhi Crime Branch has busted an interstate gang of notorious auto lifters operating in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and North-East Region. Eleven gang members including thieves, receivers, carriers, expert in punching or tampering of engine and chassis number have been arrested and 30 stolen vehicles have been recovered.
Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) said, “In March earlier this year, the Inter State Cell, Crime Branch had busted a gang of auto lifters and recovered 20 luxury cars.
During interrogation, Kewal disclosed that he along-with his associates Dabbu, Mantri and Kala committed theft of more than 500 luxurious Cars from Delhi region in past one and half year and further disposed off the same to receivers in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and North East Region. Name of one Piketo emerged during questioning.
The team under ACP Sanjay Sehrawat had been keeping surveillance and found that the theft involves three types of operators. First, the auto lifters, who actually, physically steal the vehicles, secondly, a set of middlemen who tamper the engine and chassis number and procure forged documents, on which these stolen vehicles are re registered and thirdly, several car dealers who sell these vehicles as genuine vehicles.
Police said that during investigation, they found that prior to theft of a particular vehicle, the team scouts for and locates vehicle of particular make and color, which is declared as total loss vehicle by the insurance companies due to accounts. These vehicles along with their documents are then purchased by the gang through the scrap dealers at a higher rate. Subsequently, while the total loss vehicle is disposed off as scrap, the documents of this vehicle are retained. In the next step, the gang member now targets a vehicle of same make and color and gets these vehicles stolen. Once the vehicle is stolen, a team of expert forgers is involved, who obliterate the original engine number and chassis number of the stolen vehicle and the engine number and chassis number of the total loss vehicle is inscribed on the stolen car. By this simple trick, the stolen vehicle is given an identity of a vehicle, which has been declared as total loss.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that they used to procure the documents of accidental / total loss vehicles from insurance company along with scrap and after obtaining the documents of the said vehicle, they conveyed the details / make of Car to their associates based at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh On their instructions, their associates would target a car / vehicle of same make/colour and deliver the same to them. After completing all the formalities, they used to sell the said car in open market.
The team was keeping surveillance of the modus operandi of the Sukhdev Gang and zeroed on the movement of one Kewal Gang, active in theft of luxury cars from Delhi and NCR Region.
Based on thorough investigation, the ISC team arrested Md Sibbu, a member of the Sukhdev gang. The team then arrested Kewal on September 22 along with his associates Vinay Kumar and Tarun
During interrogation, Kewal disclosed that he along-with his associates Dabbu, Mantri and Kala committed theft of more than 500 luxurious Cars from Delhi region in past one and half year and further disposed off the same to receivers in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and North East Region. Name of one Piketo emerged during questioning.
Subsequently, on September 24, Rajesh Moga, main receiver of the stolen vehicle was arrested. At his instance, two stolen Innova Cars were recovered. On September 29, Atul Patel, another receiver native of Gujrat was apprehended from Dadari district while he was in possession of one stolen Volkswagen Vento Car (with fake registration number).