Gang of auto lifters held, 28 highend stolen cars recovered

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s crime branch has busted an inter-state syndicate of auto lifters who stole high-end cars from DelhiNCR and sold them in northeastern states such as Nagaland and Manipur and other parts of the country, police said on Friday.

Five members of the gang, including four carriers and receivers of the stolen vehicles, have been arrested, officials said. Police said the gang transported the stolen vehicles inside container trucks.

A total of 28 stolen cars were recovered and 50 cases of vehicle thefts were solved with the arrest of the five accused, police said. The recovered vehicles included high-end cars like Toyota Fortuner, Tata Safari, Hyundai Creta, Mahindra Scorpio and Toyota Innova. Police also recovered electronic gadgets and other tools used for unlocking parked vehicles and breaking electronic security locks.

Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch), said the arrested men were identified as Sonu, Narender Singh, Lal Bahadur, Sarik and Vijay Dahiya.

Sonu is a vehicle thief, while the other four received stolen vehicles from Sonu, transported them to Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab and various northeastern states and sold them to potential customers after forging their documents.

DCP Deo said the five were arrested from different areas in separate operations conducted between December 15 and 27.