Mohali luxury cars racket accused bought stolen vehicles from gangs in UP

The accused in the Mohali luxury cars racket allegedly bought stolen vehicles, both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, from local gangs in Meerut

Police investigation into the multi-crore nexus of a gang using counterfeit documents to sell luxury cars to unwary buyers has found that the key suspect Rakesh Mittal, 57, of Patiala, was earlier booked by Uttar Pradesh Police for buying stolen vehicles.

The key accused in the Mohali luxury cars racket had bought stolen vehicles from gangs in UP. (HT File)

Mittal who allegedly bought stolen vehicles, both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, from local gangs in Meerut allegedly sold the vehicles in Punjab using fake RCs and chassis numbers. He was booked by Brahmpuri police in Meerut on June 28, 2020, for cheating, forgery, dishonestly receiving stolen property and for assisting in concealment of stolen properties.

While police had arrested two gang members, Mittal managed to flee the spot. He was later identified and nominated in the case. Members of the gang then revealed that Mittal assisted them in theft and sold numerous such vehicles in Punjab.

The vehicles stolen by the said gang were wanted in a theft case registered by MV theft crime brswanch, Delhi Police station on March 3, 2018.

Later on June 16, 2023, Mittal was booked by Karnal police in a cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy case for allegedly duping a Kurukshetra resident of ₹5 lakh in lieu of providing him VIP number 0001 for his Toyota Innova car. The accused allegedly created a fake RC in the name of Sonu Kumar of Nagura village, Jind, Haryana.

Blackmailed govt employees

Meanwhile, the probe of the Handesra police revealed that Mittal blackmailed the government employees for money after the job was done.

“He also Rsought ₹10 lakh from co-accused Kamaljeet to keep the nexus hidden. The accused also blackmailed government employees and forced them to blacklist a few vehicles threatening them to reveal the scam to the police. Mittal introduced himselswf to his targets as a police officer, banker or as an agent to extort money,” a police officer said.

Investigators are now probing the role of Kharar sub-divisional magistrate office employees.

According to the police, details of the NOCs required to issue RCs or other important documents required for the same can only be uploaded from either clerk’s ID after the SDM’s approval or using the ID of the SDM concerned.

While investigation the racket, Kharar authorities concerned last month alerted local police about their official ID for vehicle registration being hacked.

Four persons involved in the nexus have landed in police net so far, the first being Kamaljit Verma, 35, of Kharar, who had tried to sell off a Hyundai Venue car with a fake number in Handesra, only to be nabbed by the local police. The car was brought from Haridwar, Uttarakhand, and its number switched out for a fake one, said police.

Further probe led to the arrest of Ronie Mitra, 30, a native of West Bengal and currently residing in Kharar, who helped Kamaljit forge his Aadhaar card for the car’s resale. The third accused is Sandeep, alias Sunny, 25, who had access to the official emails and online portal of the Kharar vehicle registration department, while the fourth, Rakesh Mittal.