5 vehicle thieves arrested, 20 luxury cars recovered

With the arrest of five persons, the police claim to have busted a gang of vehicle thieves. About 30 cars, including 20 luxury sedans, have been recovered from their possession. 

The accused allegedly used to purchase damaged cars from auctions, attain their original documents and sell them to scrap dealers. Later, they allegedly procured stolen cars of similar make from Delhi-NCR, exchange their chassis number and sell them off. The police said the arrested were identified as Sanjay Singh, Mobin Ahmed, Salim, Mannan and Kasim. 

According to the police, they used to purchase damaged cars from insurance firms in auctions at  Rs 5-15 lakh. They, then, attained their original documents, including the RC. They would then sell the damaged cars to scrap dealers, but retained the vehicles’ documents. In this process, they would save around Rs 5,000-15,000 per car.

The police said the accused used to then contact some auto lifters and ask them to steal a particular model car, similar to the damaged one that they had sold. After they allegedly got a stolen car of a similar make, they used to change its registration and engine number with those of the damaged car. They would then allegedly sell off the car to people, willing to buy a second-hand vehicle.

On August 10, Sanjay and Ahmed were arrested with a stolen Fortuner Car, whose engine / chassis numbers were tampered with, police said. They were trying dispose of the car, when they were caught. The tools used for tampering the engine/ chassis numbers have been recovered, they added.  They told the police that they used to purchase stolen cars from Kasim Lath, Salim, Sakir and Nawab, all from Meerut in UP.