The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inter-State gang of auto-lifters busted; 270 cars recovered

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inter-State gang of auto-lifters busted; 270 cars recovered

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 2. Seven members of one of the biggest gangs of auto-lifters, including a motor vehicle inspector from Imphal, have been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police on charges of stealing over 270 vehicles from the Capital and disposing them of in Manipur.

While the police have recovered 23 stolen vehicles so far, they have also been successful in tracing 251 others.

The activities of the gang came to light with the arrest of three persons, Shankar Sarkar, Ravi and Parminder Singh, from Sarojini Nagar. A stolen Tata Indica car was recovered from them.

The arrests were made on the basis of information developed by Sub-Inspector Bhagwati Prasad of Anti-Auto Theft Squad. On verification, the vehicle was found stolen from Patel Nagar.

In a startling revelation during their interrogation, the accused told the police that they had stolen several vehicles, including Maruti 800, Zen, Santro and Scropio.

After stealing the vehicle, Shankar and Ravi, along with their accomplices, used to take the vehicles to Parminder at Siliguri. Parminder's job was to prepare fake documents of these vehicles using West Bengal registration numbers, following which the vehicles were taken to Guwahati and then delivered to another gang member, S. Imo Singh, a resident of Imphal.

Imo would drive the vehicles to Imphal where a motor vehicle inspector posted with Imphal (East) transport authority, D.M. Pani, would get them registered on forged documents. At the instance of Shankar, Ravi and Praminder, a team of Crime Branch sleuths was dispatched to Manipur to develop more inputs and crack the chain of auto-lifting.

Subsequently, the police sent a decoy to strike a deal with Imo and Pani by offering them a stolen Scorpio. In order to convince them that the vehicle had been brought from Delhi, the police smeared it with dust and mud. Imo and Pani landed into the trap and were arrested from Guwahati.

The police recovered forged registration certificates and vehicle insurance papers from Pani. Two more gang members, T.

Othello and Janindro Singh, who operated as carriers of the stolen vehicles, were also arrested.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Tejinder Luthra, this was the first time the police had cracked the entire auto-lifting chain, in which they arrested the auto-lifters, carriers of stolen vehicles and the receivers.

In this chain, Shankar and his accomplice, Rakesh, used to steal newly bought vehicles, while Ravi conducted a reconnaissance before that to make sure that it was safe to steal them.

Shankar disclosed that he and Rakesh, who has been arrested by the Chandigarh police, started stealing vehicles after they met an auto-lifter, Dharampal.

Later, they came in contact with Parminder Singh at Siliguri, who offered them more money against new vehicles.

Mr. Luthra said Parminder and Imo were receivers of the stolen vehicles.

Imo disclosed that he had strong links with transport authority officials, through whom he would get the vehicles registered and sell them to gullible people.

Imo allegedly smuggled gold from Myanmar in the past. "The accused had stolen and disposed of over 270 vehicles.

We have recovered 23 of them and initiated the process for recovery of other vehicles," Mr. Luthra added.

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