Accused drove an ‘industry’ of stolen cars

LUCKNOW: The arrest of five members of a car thieves’ gang in Lucknow on Sunday blew the lid off a racket that functioned as an ‘industry’ of stolen cars comprising insurance agents, thieves, spotters and sellers.

This illegal car business was on the roll for years with everyone performing their part and getting their share.

The police recovered 50 cars, including high-end foreign-made vehicles, worth over ₹50 million from those arrested. In the last few years, the gang was suspected to be involved in theft of more than 1,000 vehicles across UP.

The accused connived with private insurance agents to implement their car theft plan.

“The insurance agents used to focus on total loss vehicles. They struck a deal with the owners of such vehicles to sell their cars and surrender their papers in return for clearance of insurance claims,” said Swatantra Kumar Singh, assistant commissioner of police (Vibhuti Khand), who headed the investigations.

Once the gang had the papers of vehicles in their hand, the second stage of the process was initiated.

The details about the total loss vehicle - its brand, colour and make -were shared with the vehicle lifters. With the help of spotters, the lifters identified similar cars, before stealing them.

“The stolen car was then taken to a designated workshop where trained mechanics replaced chassis and engine number with the one on the ‘total loss’ vehicles. The gang sent the stolen cars to workshops in Meerut for this. We are trying to identify these,” said the officer.

Several car bazar owners, where old cars are sold, were in contact with the gang members. The owners use to look for customers and arranged for the sale of vehicles. “These cars were sold on a slightly lower price than the market rate to lure customers,” said the officer.The police believed that the gang stole cars from almost half a dozen states and sold these in many parts of the country, especially the NorthEast and in Nepal.