Five vehicle lifters arrested
LUCKNOW: With the arrest of five people here in Hussainganj on Sunday, the city police claimed to have busted a notorious gang of vehicle lifters involved in over 50 vehicle thefts in the state capital during past one year. Cops have also recovered at least 16 stolen two-wheelers from their possession and efforts are on to recover more vehicles on the basis of information extracted from them.
Shiva Shankar Singh, incharge of Hussainganj police station said those arrested were identified as Shariq Khan, Mohd Ashraf Khan, Mohd Chand, Arhaan Siddiqui and Manoj Gupta. He said Shariq Khan is the gang leader and he used to identify the spots for vehicle lifting while loitering in the city.
Singh said the gang’s modus operandi was to target such points where proper parking stand was not available for visitors. “Mostly, government and private hospitals and commercial establishments where two-wheelers are parked on the roadsides remained on their targets. They used to stay around different hospitals and establishments individually and kept identifying their targets. They later used to inform Mohd Chand and Arhaan Siddiqui, who are experts in opening locks of vehicles. The duo opened the locks and handed over the vehicles to other gang members present there,” said Singh while explaining the modus operandi of the gang. He said one gang member, however, used to stay for sometime near the spot to analyse the police response.
He said the gang had stolen over four dozen two-wheelers in a quick succession within one year and sold it to different people by changing the colour, appearance and registration number of the vehicles. He said the gang had replaced the original registration numbers with such accidental vehicles which they had spotted lying in scraps or outside police stations.
Singh said the gang leader had confessed to selling at least 20 more stolen vehicles in the city while the remaining vehicles were sold out in other adjoining districts. “We are making efforts to track down such vehicles which are being used in the city,” he emphasised.