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Mohali police bust gang of vehicle lifters, 4 arrested
The Mohali police busted gang of vehicle lifters with the arrest of Vineet Gautam (29) and his brother Shubham Gautam (27) of Patiala; and Gaggi (20) of Patiala, currently residing in Mundi Kharar, for stealing cars along with scrap dealer Savesh of Uttarakhand.
The Mohali CIA police busted a gang of vehicle lifters involved in stealing cars with the arrest of four persons on Tuesday.
The accused allegedly stole 35 cars from Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana. Four cars, including the car of a judicial officer, were recovered from their possession.
The gang, according to the police, stole 22 cars from Mohali in the past six months.
A team led by SP (investigation) Amandeep Singh Brar, DSP Gursher Singh and inspector Shiv Kumar arrested three car lifters along with a scrap dealer.
The police arrested Vineet Gautam (29) and his brother Shubham Gautam (27) of Patiala; and Gaggi (20) of Patiala, currently residing in Mundi Kharar, for stealing cars along with scrap dealer Savesh of Uttarakhand.
Police said while Vineet was booked in around 30 vehicle theft cases in the past, his brother was booked in 21 cases.
“This is one of the biggest car lifting gangs operating in the tricity or Punjab. The gang used to steal vehicles from Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ropar and tricity. Though we have established their 35 vehicle thefts till date, we are expecting their involvement in around 50 cases,” Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sandeep Garg said.
Modus operandi
Talking about the modus operandi of the gang, the SSP said Vineet, Shubham and Gaggi used to target cars parked in residential areas at night or the cars which used to be parked in isolated areas.
“Instead of selling the cars here, they used to take the vehicles to scrap dealers in Haridwar and one in Saharanpur. The scrap dealers, including Savesh, used to dismantle the cars and sell the vehicle’s body in scrap and spare parts separately,” the SSP said.
“We will soon nab the Saharanpur scrap dealer as raids are being conducted to nab him. After stealing the cars, the gang used to park the cars in the Industrial Area in Rajpura, Punjab, before fleeing to Uttarakhand or Saharanpur to sell those to scrap dealers,” he added.
The accused were held in Kharar and were traced following CCTV cameras.
The Chandigarh Police recovered four cars from the gang, including a black Swift car having Chandigarh number, which according to the police belonged to a judicial officer residing in Manimajra, Chandigarh. Another Swift car having Punjab number along with a Verna car and an Indigo car were also recovered from the accused.
Another senior police officer said that after over 20 car thefts in Mohali, separate teams were formed to nab the accused following which the police were tracing the gang through CCTV cameras in different areas. “When we arrested them, it came to the fore that they were part of a huge gang. Since we have arrested the four members, we are hopeful of tracing their accomplices too,” an officer said.
Police have booked the gang under Sections 379 (punishment for theft), 411 (dishonestly receiving or retaining stolen property), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at City Kharar police station.
