The North-West district police claim to have busted an alleged gang of auto lifters who would first steal a car and then park it in markets and near under-construction metro sites to check whether a GPS system was installed in the vehicle.
The police also recovered eight stolen semi-luxurious cars. Among those arrested are Sanjeev, Mohd Shahjad and Mahesh Kumar.
A senior police officer said that once they were sure that the vehicle was not being electronically monitored, they would proceed to get the engine and chasis number changed in a way that detection became almost impossible.
“After stealing a car they would park it at different locations, such as parking areas, under construction metro stations, parking areas of flats, markets, etc, in Delhi-NCR and check whether any GPS system was installed in the vehicle. They would then get Mahesh from Aligarh to tamper with the engine and chassis number of the stolen vehicle,” said the officer while explaining the gang’s modus operandi.
He added that it was Mahesh who used a unique method to tamper with the engine and chassis numbers of the stolen vehicle in such a way that the original vehicle could hardly be distinguished from the duplicate.
“Mahesh used printing frames and certain chemicals like potassium bromide and grinder, emulsion, black ink, transparent paper and others tools. Later, they supplied these vehicles with tampered engine and chassis numbers to other people,” said the officer.
On July 19, the police received a complaint that a Honda City has been stolen. Based on this, a case was registered and a team formed to probe the matter.
Three days later the police received a tip off that an auto-lifter, Sanjeev, and his associates would come in a stolen car near Shah Alam Bandh in Mukerjee Nagar. Based on this, a trap was laid and Sanjeev and Shahjad were arrested. Later, Mahesh was also apprehended.
