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Gang of inter-State auto-lifters busted

Staff Reporter

36 stolen vehicles worth over Rs. 50 lakhs recovered

NEW DELHI: Seven people allegedly involved in more than 100 cases of auto theft have been arrested by the Sultanpuri police of North-West Delhi. While the police have so far recovered 36 stolen vehicles worth about Rs. 50 lakhs, a hunt is on for other members of the inter-State gang.

On Tuesday, a police team intercepted a Maruti Esteem car in Rohini Sector 24 following a tip-off that it was a stolen one. Enquiries revealed that it had been stolen from Saraswati Vihar. Subsequently three of its occupants were taken into custody. They were identified as Anil, Manoj and Rakesh.

During interrogation, the accused purportedly confessed to their involvement in auto-theft cases. At their instance, the police recovered eight stolen vehicles from the parking lots of New Delhi and Old Delhi railway stations. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West Delhi) Manish Agrawal said the three were remanded to 10-day police custody for interrogation and recovery of other stolen vehicles. Different teams were formed to follow the leads provided by the accused.

"Manoj led one of the teams to Deoband in Uttar Pradesh where his accomplices, Shamsher and Salim, were arrested and seven stolen vehicles recovered from their possession. On its way back, the team arrested another gang member Asif and recovered a stolen Maruti Zen from Meerut," said Mr. Agrawal.

The other team recovered 13 more stolen vehicles, which were stationed at various parking lots to evade detection. Among the stolen vehicles were several luxury vehicles including Hyundai Accent and Toyota Qualis.

The police also arrested another alleged receiver of stolen vehicles, Mazhar, from Nabi Karim in Central Delhi and recovered six stolen motorcycles.

The police said Anil, Manoj and Rakesh earlier resided at Ashok Vihar in North-West Delhi. They came in contact with each other and formed a gang to commit vehicle thefts. Shamsher is a junk dealer, while Salim is a motor mechanic. Shamsher came across Salim at Deoband while he was planning to dispose of a stolen vehicle, allegedly purchased from Anil, Rakesh and Manoj. Shamsher used to dismantle old stolen vehicles and sell them off as scrap.

Mr. Agrawal said that on several occasions, the accused tampered with the engine and chassis numbers of the stolen vehicles and replaced them with the numbers of old vehicles of the same model. Such vehicles would be disposed of as genuine ones on the basis of registration documents of the old, but dismantled, vehicles.

The police are investigating into the suspected links of Mazhar with some purchasers of stolen vehicles in Bihar.

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