Car lifters' gang bought mobile jammers online to prevent phone calls to police

New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind case, criminals are now making use of the best available technology to evade arrest and dodge investigators. South Delhi AATS was shocked to find sophisticated mobile jammers from a gang of auto lifters whom they recently arrested.

The acused used mobile jammers while committing theft or dealing in stolen cars to dodge decoy customers as well as law enforcement agencies. This device acted as a guard to electronic surveillance of these criminals.

"They used the jammers while commiting vehicle theft. So in case if they are spotted, the people from the adjoining area could not make a police call, helping them to flee the scene before the arrival of the cops." explained DCP (South) Romil Baaniya,

These jammers were also used by this two-member gang to avoid a decoy customer sent by police in case he tries to call his team members while pretending to deal in the purchase of the stolen cars giving the gang ample time to evade cops. Delhi Police officers were shocked to see that these mobile jammers were procured by the gang from online marketing sites.

Though only government agencies are authorised to use the jammers for specific purpose, these criminals are buying it from online sites and effectively using it, said a senior police officer. Subodh Yadav, a 37-year-old from Ettawa, UP, and 42-year-old Vipan Kumar from Mohali, Punjab, were arrested by a team of AATS South District on December 11 which has busted an inter-state cartel of auto-lifters who target luxury cars from Delhi and NCR.

"The members of this syndicate eagerly purchase total damaged or loss vehicles from insurance company and punch the Engine and Chassis numbers of total loss vehicle to stolen vehicle and sell stolen vehicles to second hand car buyers." said Romil Baaniya, DCP South.

The cartel also used advance security software to read and replicate machine to disable ignition and security system and bypass ECM of vehicle and transferred this data into their programming machine. Using this data, the accused prepares duplicate keys and steals cars. Six cases of motor vehicle theft have been worked out with the arrests.