Vehicle lifter wanted by 6 states held, 10 vehicles recovered
IN THE NET Accused is a 27-year-old mechanic from Chandigarh
GURUGRAM: The police have arrested a 27-year-old mechanic from Chandigarh for allegedly stealing more than 200 cars this year alone and selling them in six states at throwaway prices. He allegedly targeted SUVS and sedan cars and had bought advanced tools to disable the ignition and security system of the cars. He used to make duplicate keys after transferring the cars’ data via the latest technology, the police said.
The man was identified as Nadeem Khan, alias Sibbu, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. He had been involved in vehicle theft for the past 10 years since he used to work in a mechanic shop in Khatauli near his hometown, the police said.
The police said he had stolen a Hyundai Creta from Old Gurugram in the first week of December which was enabled with a car tracking system but Khan forgot to disable it. The case was assigned to the crime team who followed the car and arrested him from Chandigarh while he was on his way to Shimla with one of his girlfriends, the police said.
Khan allegedly stole cars from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Delhi and told the police that he had spent a lot of time recceing posh areas. He had created a data bank of cars to be lifted in the coming days, the police said.
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that he had bought a tool kit for ₹1 lakh from Punjab and using that, he would decode a car and get duplicate car keys made, following which he would drive the car to different cities. “He also used a mobile phone signal jammer device which he had bought for ₹8,00 from an online shopping portal to evade arrest,” he said.
Khan would sell an SUV between ₹3 and 4 lakh and a sedan for ₹2 lakh to his fixed dealers in different areas.
The police allegedly recovered 10 cars from his possession after the arrest last week and one countrymade pistol that he kept for his protection if caught red-handed by the public. Sangwan said he was fond of driving the latest cars and stole them to impress his girlfriends. “He used to take his girlfriends to deliver the car to ensure that he is not stopped by the cops on the way and used to change the registration number of the cars to evade arrest. He conducted extensive reconnaissance of the place before targeting any car and used to maintain a diary of the cars and the location from where he stole them,” he said.
The police said Khan never returned empty-handed from any vacation. He allegedly stole cars of tourists from Shimla, Mussoorie and Kullu Manali this year when he visited with his family and girlfriends. “He was fond of holidaying in Goa and had visited the state six times this year with different girlfriends. He had stolen cars from there twice, but we are yet to receive the exact details,” Sameer Ahlawat, inspector, crime investigation agency of Sikanderpur, said.
The police said Khan was a history-sheeter, against whom more than 50 cases of vehicle theft were registered between 2007 and December 2019. The police said Khan committed his first crime when he was in Class 6—he stole the bicycle of a neighbour after a tiff. During questioning, he allegedly told the police that he left studies as everyone in school had started calling him ‘chor’ (thief).
Ahlawat said that at a very young age, Khan’s family members pushed him to work and he joined a garage in Khatauli. “He joined hands with a local notorious gang of vehicle lifters who would steal motorcycles and sell them in nearby villages after removing their registration plates. He used to earn ₹2,000 a month in 2004 and has been jailed more than 10 times since then. He is currently on bail in three theft cases and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the Uttarakhand police in an NDPS Act case in 2012,” he said.