Gone in five minutes: Thieves who disabled, stole cars in minutes held
The Delhi Police on Tuesday busted a gang of carjackers that allegedly used latest technology and electronic tools to tamper with anti-theft protection installed in luxury cars and steal them within minutes.
Four members of the gang, all specializing in stealing different car brands, were arrested and 12 stolen vehicles recovered from different areas in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
The arrested were identified as Aamir, Safruddin aka Safar, Sageer and Sohaib Khan.
The gang, police said, has stolen over 200 four-wheelers of various companies Toyota Fortuner, Innova and Hyundai Creta, among others cars, most of which cost over Rs 10 lakh apiece, in the last few months, police said. They said the carjackers had learnt the tricks of bypassing and programming alternative electronic module of cars by watching tutorial videos online. They used to steal cars according to demand, said police.
“They were so proficient at their job that they barely took five-odd minutes to tamper with a car’s expensive anti-theft system and drive away with the vehicle. The arrested accused revealed that they never touched GPS-enabled vehicles or cars which had manual gear, steering, breaks and clutch locks. They mostly targeted luxury cars which came with anti-theft devices,” said an investigating officer.
Police said the carjackers carried electronic equipment such as key programmers, GPS detector, laptops and duplicate automatic keys of cars, which they purchased through e-commerce websites. They kept updating their skills by watching new tutorial videos online.
Romil Baaniya, deputy commissioner of police (southeast district), said the arrested vehicle thieves were part of an interstate gang of Sagir alias Sata from Uttar Pradesh. Sata has over 100 trained carjackers in his gang, Baaniya said.
“The four were caught on Saturday following intelligence reports that they would come to New Friends Colony to deliver a stolen Hyundai Verna. Our team laid a trap and the four were nabbed with the stolen vehicle,” said Baaniya.
Sources in police said that some vehicles recovered from the possession of the accused were used during the recently concluded assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Investigators are now probing if the vehicles were stolen and supplied to associates of any of the political leaders who contested the UP’s assembly polls.
According to Baaniya, the gang operated in a professional manner and every member had a different task to perform. Aamir, for example, was an expert in stealing Fortuner, Innova and cars of Maruti company. They stole cars according to demands made by Sata.
Explaining their tricks, Baaniya said the accused first parked their car close to the car they wanted to steal.
To avoid the security alarm, they first cut the wire of the hooter from under the car’s hood. If during the process of disabling the hooter, the car’s indicators went off , the thieves used to return to their vehicle and wait till the indicators stopped flashing, he said.
“They entered the car after breaking its rear quarter glass. They then pulled out the ignition point using a drill machine. After that, they took out wires from plugs below the dashboard and connected them to their alternate ECM. This helped them start the car’s engine using a screw driver in the ignition point,” Baaniya said.
The woman apparently tried to confide her ordeal to her friends and brother, but could not because she was afraid of the social stigma attached to a sexual assault.
She said she avoided stepping out of her hostel and even going to a hospital when she was sick because he had been stalking her constantly.
However, she gathered courage to go to police as the assaults and harassment became unbearable.
“We registered a case on Monday and asked the accused to join the probe. He said he had known the woman for more than six years,” said Chinmoy Biswal, the additional deputy commissioner of police (south district).
The engineer was arrested because of the serious charges against him, and produced him before a city court that remanded him in jail.
“The woman broke their friendship but he kept harassing her. She is in trauma and her statement before the magistrate could not be recorded on Tuesday. She is being counseled,” an officer said.
Quite a number of places such as the Ridge area, Lodhi Road, KG Marg, Safdarjung and Palam received traces of rain on Tuesday after the city woke up to hazy and windy morning.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the haze was because of a dust storm.
Winds blowing at 12kmph kicked up the dust. The wind speed increased because of a western disturbance — a storm that brews in the Mediterranean Sea and brings rain-bearing clouds to New Delhi.
The dust, however, had little impact on the city’s notorious air quality.
The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said air quality was “moderate”. According to its health advisory, “air quality is acceptable; however, there may be a moderate health concern for people sensitive to air pollution”.
The heat will be back from Sunday. The weather office said the city is likely to experience above-normal temperatures on most days in April to June.
“The weather forced us to take the road. Our tour of Arunachal Pradesh is on course but with a change in schedule,” Tenzin Takhla, the private secretary to the Dalai Lama, told HT.
The Dalai Lama’s itinerary, a government spokesperson said, has been reversed. He will now be reaching Tawang, about 180km from Bomdila, on April 8 for a three-day stay.
The spiritual leader was earlier scheduled to depart from Tawang on April 9 and visit other places, some of which, including state capital Itanagar are likely to be struck off the itinerary.
The rain, however, followed the Dalai Lama when he arrived at Bomdila’s Lower Gompa after an almost nine-hour drive. Almost everyone who matters in Arunachal Pradesh – from ministers and local MLAs to the chief secretary and director general of police – had queued up in the rain to greet him. “This is a great day for us, and we are fortunate His Holiness accepted our invitation,” Khandu said. He had gone to Dharamshala last year to invite the Dalai Lama.
One of his aides said the Dalai Lama’s visit was purely spiritual without any geo-political message for anyone.
The Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, particularly the Tawang region, is his second in eight years.
His last visit was in 2009, exactly 50 years after he had entered India while fleeing to India from Lhasa,Tibet. His then visit had also evoked strong reactions from China.
China claims claims about 90,000 square kilometres in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing often refers to as “Southern Tibet”. Several rounds of talks have failed to make substantial progress on the dispute, although there have been relatively few confrontations in recent years.
Last month, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Beijing has expressed its concerns to New Delhi on numerous occasions and urged India to avoid offering a place for the Dalai Lama to carry out anti-China separatist activities.(With
They were so proficient at their job that they barely took fiveodd minutes to tamper with a car’s expensive antitheft system and drive away with the vehicle.
The Trump administration has let India know, according to officials in New Delhi who spoke on condition of anonymity, that the president has no intention of insinuating himself or the US into the conflict as a mediator or a peacemaker.
India first raised this issue with the administration in January after Trump, then presidentelect, was seen to be signalling a desire to play a role in resolving India-Pakistan issues during a phone call with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems,” Trump had said, according to a transcript released by Islamabad. “It will be an honor and I will personally do it.”
New Delhi, which had been engaging the new administration in a series of meetings, was alarmed and checked. “We were told by those close to the administration the president was not interested,” said an official on background. Indianshavesince then let the Trump administration know at other levels and in other meetings about their position on third party mediation. And they have had no reason to re-visit the issue until now.
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley told reporters that the US was determined to continue the press the case for sanctioning and designating terrorists at the UN. Though she did not take names, she was clearly referring to the move to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar, which was blocked by China.