With the arrest of 14 people, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted an inter-state gang of auto thieves and recovered 25 stolen luxurious vehicles, together with Toyota Fortuners and Innova Crysta, price over Rs 13 crore, an official stated on Wednesday.
Police have additionally recovered 16 tampered engines, eight pretend quantity plates, and 6 cast registration certificates from the possession of the accused throughout a number of raids in numerous components of Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, spanning over the past two and half months.
Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, Ravindra Singh Yadav, revealed that these luxurious vehicles had been focused by auto thieves who operated in an organised method throughout completely different areas of India.
“Upon analysing the crime trends, the Delhi Police observed that Toyota Cars — Fortuners/Innova Crysta were the prime targets of auto thieves. Acting on this information, two teams were deployed to investigate and gather intelligence on the organised syndicate dealing in these stolen vehicles, ” stated Yadav.
Both groups performed in depth analysis, utilizing knowledge evaluation, GPS knowledge, Call Detail Records (CDR), Dump Data, and human surveillance suggestions which proved to be essential in growing particular inputs about stolen luxurious vehicles being transported to southern, western, and north-western components of India.
“The efforts paid off, resulting in the successful arrest of seven buyers/sellers of stolen luxury vehicles and the recovery of 18 stolen luxury cars, 18 fake number plates, and six forged registration certificates from various locations including Goa, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad, ” stated the Special CP.
Similarly, one other auto-theft gang working within the Delhi-NCR space was additionally busted.
“The operation led to the arrest of seven accused, including two auto-thieves, one maker of forged high-security number plates, one mechanic, and three buyers/sellers of stolen vehicles. The team seized seven stolen vehicles, 16 tampered engines, forged high-security number plates, forged high-security holograms, IND stickers, and articles used for making forged number plates from Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana, ” stated Yadav.
The investigation revealed the modus operandi of the prison gang concerned within the theft of luxurious vehicles.
“The gang would first identify vehicles declared as ‘Total Loss’ by insurance companies, purchase them, and then dispose of the parts as scrap while retaining the documents. Subsequently, upon receiving demands for specific makes and models, the thieves would lift targeted vehicles, erase their original identification details, and replace them with details from the purchased ‘Total Loss’ vehicles, thus giving the stolen cars new identities, ” stated the official.
“Interrogation of the accused provided significant insights into the operations of the syndicate. Rajkumar Kiran Sana Singh, the mastermind of the gang operating in western and southern India, revealed that he had contacts with various stolen car suppliers, most of whom he had not even met in person, relying solely on social media apps for communication, ” stated the official.
Rajukumar had began shopping for stolen autos initially from Bappa Ghosh after which promoting them to his contacts in Manipur.
“Later through Bappa Ghosh, he came in contact with Daddy Singh and M.K of Uttar Pradesh through WhatsApp and they started providing him with stolen luxury cars in Pune. He later came in contact with Akash Desai, Yash Desai and Austin Cardoz, all residents of Goa, to whom he started delivering the stolen cars and organised the crime syndicate, ” stated the official
During interrogation, a startling truth has come to note that Rajkumar was in contact with many stolen automobile suppliers, who had been receiving these autos from the primary rung receivers at Meerut (UP).
Some of the accused arrested have been recognized as Rajkumar (34), a resident of Manipur, Yash Desai (28), a resident of Karnataka, Austin Cardoz (29), a resident of Goa, Suraj Sharma (35), a resident of Andhra Pradesh and others.
To handle the vulnerabilities in safety features of high-end vehicles, the Delhi Police additionally issued an advisory to producers and insurers.
The advisory suggests the position of SIM playing cards or chips accessible to prospects, permitting them to disable the engine remotely in case of theft. Additionally, insurance coverage firms had been urged to dam the engine and chassis particulars of ‘Total Loss’ autos to stop their use in auto theft.
“Teams are actively pursuing investigations into the syndicate’s associates located in different parts of India. Efforts are on to arrest the remaining accused and dismantle the entire network, including receivers, auto-thieves and drivers involved in transporting stolen cars for further disposal, ” the official added.