The Hindu : New Delhi News : Engineers held for vehicle thefts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Engineers held for vehicle thefts

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. Two engineers allegedly engaged in motor vehicle thefts in the Capital have been arrested by the South Delhi police. A receiver of stolen vehicles has also been arrested. The police have recovered six vehicles at their instance and solved 47 cases of vehicle theft.

The Anti-Auto Theft Squad of the South Delhi police led by Inspector Sunder Singh had arrested two persons -- identified as Amanjeet Singh, a resident of Defence Colony, and Harpreet Singh alias Mani, a resident of Rohini -- riding a stolen Honda City near Sheikh Sarai in South Delhi on March 20. At their instance, the police recovered two more Honda City cars, one Hyundai Santro, a Maruti Zen and one Maruti 800.

Gurdas, a receiver of stolen property from Amritsar in Punjab, has also been arrested. Apart from the stolen vehicles, the police have also recovered about 900 duplicate keys, 50 blank registration certificates of various transport authorities, rubber stamps and a typewriter used for making forged papers for the stolen vehicles.

The police said Amanjeet and Harpreet had completed their bachelors' course in engineering from Guru Nanak College of Engineering at Bidar in Karnataka. While pursuing the course, they got addicted to anti-depressants and cough syrups with high alcohol content. They used to consume four to eight bottles of Corex, a cough syrup, every day.

According to the police, the accused, both of whom come from well-to-do families had been staying at Hotel Shiva Continental in Paharganj for the past eight months. In the wake of mounting expenses, which easily crossed well over Rs. 1,000 a day, the accused began indulging in motor vehicle thefts, the police said.

The duo would commit thefts in the early hours. They used the old method of opening the locks of the vehicles with the help of steel rulers and then remove the clamp of the steering locks. Using duplicate keys they would start the car and drive it down to the parking lot of Hotel Shiva Continental. The cars would be disposed of the next day.

Apart from disposing of the vehicles to Gurdas, the accused also gave the vehicles to Gulshan, a resident of Hudson Lane in Mukherjee Nagar.

Gulshan used to take the vehicles to Sonepat in Haryana to an agent who further sold the vehicles in Manipur. In order to evade police, Gulshan always drove with his wife and a minor child while disposing of stolen vehicles.

Further investigations in the case are on.

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