The Hindu : New Delhi News : A tough job on hands

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Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
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New Delhi

A tough job on hands

Recovering stolen vehicles becomes extremely difficult for the police force. Devesh K. Pandey digs deeper....

Though the police have been successful in smashing several auto-lifting gangs operating in the Capital, recovering stolen vehicles becomes extremely difficult for the force as they are disposed of at faraway places and change several hands before they reach their final destination.

A large number of auto-lifting gangs active in Delhi comprise mostly criminals from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. “Several young men from Kithor village in Meerut have been found involved in vehicle thefts. Some of them steal vehicles from Delhi, take them to Meerut, get them dismantled in workshops and use their engines in vehicles damaged in accidents. They are adept at replacing the original chassis and engine numbers of vehicles with fake ones and sell them to innocent buyers on the basis of forged documents,” said a police officer.

Interestingly there are auto-lifters who mostly target vehicles keeping in mind the “specifications” provided by the receivers. “Some notorious auto-lifters like Rajesh from U.P., Santram from Haryana and Anil Chauhan of U.P., whose gang is suspected to be involved in over 400 cases, steal vehicles as per demand,” said another officer.

Luxury vehicles like Scorpio, Tata Safari and Honda City are usually stolen from posh areas like Defence Colony, New Friends Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Janakpuri and the parking lots of shopping complexes. Most of these vehicles are disposed of for any sum from Rs.50,000 to 75,000 for supply in the North-East, Siliguri in West Bengal, Nepal, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and also in U.P. The maximum number of vehicles find their way to the North-East and Bihar.

“Stolen Maruti cars are mostly sold in rural areas,” he added.

About a year ago, the Crime Branch of the Delhi police had arrested Ranjan Chhatri, a resident of Siliguri, who was allegedly one of the biggest receivers of stolen vehicles in the North-East. Not long ago, the police had also arrested a municipal councillor from Moradabad in U.P. and three other men from Jammu and Kashmir for alleged involvement in vehicle thefts. According to the police, the councillor used to dispose of stolen vehicles to a known receiver from Bareilly.

Despite all the arrests, in the vast majority of cases the police are unable to crack the entire chain through which stolen vehicles are smuggled out.

“All those involved in the business are so active and well connected that as soon as one person is picked up, the whole gang gets inkling about it. Also, we found that those who steal vehicles rarely know much about the middlemen and the receivers,” said the police officer.

In many cases, stolen vehicles have been found registered with the local transport authorities on the basis of forged documents, making it tough for the police to track them down. In such circumstances, many police officers feel that there is a need for close coordination among the police forces of all the neighbouring States to mount surveillance at all the exit points along the border. Enforcement apart, individual owners can also install tracking devices which can help in recovery of their vehicles.

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