Interstate car theft racket busted, 11 Toyota Fortuners recovered

Delhi Police dismantled an interstate car theft syndicate, arresting 10 members and recovering 31 stolen vehicles, including 11 Toyota Fortuners.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police crime branch on Saturday claimed to have busted an interstate syndicate involved in stealing four-wheelers, replacing their chassis numbers, fraudulently re-registering the vehicles, and selling them in the second-hand car market.

Ten members of the syndicate were arrested during raids in Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and 31 stolen cars recovered. (Representative photo)

Ten members of the syndicate were arrested during raids in Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and 31 stolen cars, including 11 Toyota Fortuners, recovered from their possession, the police said, adding that the gang sold over 1,000 stolen vehicles in the past few years.

The arrested included a 42-year-old man, the mastermind, from Punjab’s Jalandhar, a 40-year-old clerk at the licensing authority in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur, and a 38-year-old Chandigarh resident, who worked as an agent preparing vehicle registration papers in return for ₹20,000–30,000 per vehicle, said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Aditya Gautam.

The other seven accused were a 39-year-old Pitampura resident, a furniture shop owner in Kirti Nagar who worked as a middleman, a 32-year-old Delhi resident, who procured stolen vehicles from auto-lifters, a 45-year-old Jalandhar resident dealing in used cars, a 40-year-old car dealer from Amritsar, a 42-year-old Haryana’s Faridabad resident, who operated a car workshop and allegedly tampered with chassis numbers, a 43-year-old resident of Delhi’s New Friends Colony who purchased stolen vehicles to facilitate narcotics trafficking, and a 43-year-old Punjab’s Sangroor resident, allegedly involved in lifting vehicles, said the DCP.

The syndicate came to light during an investigation into a case of a stolen Hyundai Creta in Delhi’s Maurya Enclave on August 5 last year. The case was transferred to the crime branch a month later.

The DCP said the gang’s modus operandi involved changing the chassis numbers of damaged vehicles and obtaining registrations using forged sale letters, fabricated documents, and fake bank No Objection Certificates (NOCs).

“These vehicles were sold to unsuspecting buyers,” he added.