With the arrest of 11 miscreants, the Bilaspur Police on Saturday claimed to have busted an inter-State gang of vehicle lifters. The police also recovered as many as 16 stolen vehicles worth Rs 1.5 crore.
The Superintendent of Police (SP) BN Meena and ASP (city) Prashant Katlam informed here in a Press conference that four members, including mastermind of the gang, belonged to Uttar Pradesh while the rest — including two RTO agents — belong to Sakti and Bilaspur. Acting on a tip off, the police conducted a raid at room number 114 of KGN Hotel and nabbed some miscreants on suspicion.
During preliminary interrogation, the miscreants revealed having lifted four-wheelers from Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other States and selling the same through forged documents with the help of some RTO agents of Bilaspur, Sakti and Raipur. Following this, the police nabbed RTO agent Vijay Bhargava (Bilaspur) and Jitesh Agrawal (Sakti) for interrogation. Both confessed their involvement in the crime and also revealed names of other members of their gang, the senior police officers added.
Based on their disclosure, the police recovered five trucks, two cars, two pickup, one Tata Safari and six Bolero vehicles, which were sold out in Raigarh, Korba, Kharsia and adjacent cities. “The vehicles were sold out with the help of forged documents by keeping the buyers in dark. No case was registered against them,” Meena explained.
Those arrested include mastermind of the gang, Varis Ali with Ashraf Ali, Mohammad Saool and Jafir Ahmed, RTO computer operator Bhuvan Sidar, Sheikh Alauddin, Arshad Khan, Firoz Khan and Roshan Jaiswal. Meena revealed that other members of the gang would soon be arrested.