Mohali: Gang of vehicle thieves busted; luxury cars among 52 recovered

Nine members arrested in separate raids conducted at various hideouts; gang used hi-tech equipment to decode engine control module to start the burglary-proof cars

The crime investigation agency of Mohali police on Wednesday claimed to have busted an interstate gang of vehicle lifters with the arrest of its nine members and recovery of 52 cars, many of them luxury ones.

The cars recovered by the Mohali police. (HT Photo)

Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Satinder Singh said, “The gang members were arrested in separate raids conducted at various hideouts. The gang used highly technical support system to decode the engine control module to start the high-end burglary-proof cars.”

The accused are Ranjit Singh, 27, and Channpreet Singh, 33, both from Delhi; Girish Bambie, 27, and Maninder Singh, 29, both from Punjab’s Tarn Taran; Harjot Singh, 28, of Amritsar; Rajay Kumar, 45, of Moga; and Pargat Singh, Satwant Singh and Karamjit Singh, all from Patiala. They were produced in a court, which sent them to police remand.

With their arrest, Mohali police also claimed to have solved multiple cases of thefts registered at Sohana, Balongi and Lalru police stations.

SSP Singh said the preliminary interrogation of the accused revealed that the gang has stolen more than 100 vehicles and its 13 more members are still out of police net.

DSP (investigation) Gurcharan Singh, said that they have recovered 11 Toyota Fortuner, eight Maruti Swift, five Toyota Innova, Hyundai Creta and Maruti Brezza each, four Toyota Etios and Hyundai Verna each, two Mahindra Scorpio and Maruti Ciaz each and a Pajero, a Tata Safari, a Hyundai i20, a Mahindra XUV 500, a Volkswagen Polo, and a Maruti Ritz.