Police have busted a gang of vehicle thieves active in the city as well as parts of Punjab with the arrest of six men — all aged between 19 and 22 — and also recovered 34 motorcycles.
The accused were arrested on Monday while they were allegedly conspiring to loot a petrol pump in Sector 39, said UT senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nilambari Jagadale here on Wednesday.
They have been identified as Kavi Singh, 21; Hardeep Singh, 22 and Baljinder Singh, 21, besides Balihar Singh, Sharanjit Singh, and Shanty Kumar, all 19.
Kavi, who formed the gang, is an auto-rickshaw driver and police informer. One of the other accused, Baljinder, was booked in a theft case in Sector 17 last year.
“All of them are hooked to drugs and started stealing two-wheelers to fund their addiction,” said Jagadale. “Now, they were planning a dacoity at a petrol pump in Sector 39, and were conducting recce, when the area police arrested them.”
At the time of making the arrests, Sector 39 station house officer (SHO) inspector Amanjot Singh recovered six Royal Enfield motorcycles from them. On being interrogated, they reportedly confessed to have stolen 70 bikes, some of which were later sold to people in various villages in Mohali, Patiala, Khanna, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib.
{{/usCountry}}At the time of making the arrests, Sector 39 station house officer (SHO) inspector Amanjot Singh recovered six Royal Enfield motorcycles from them. On being interrogated, they reportedly confessed to have stolen 70 bikes, some of which were later sold to people in various villages in Mohali, Patiala, Khanna, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib.
{{/usCountry}}However, police managed to recover 28 bikes that were not disposed of yet. Seven were found abandoned near the power grid in Sector 56 and 13 in a forest area in Sector 40.
Investigating officials said Kavi, who was an auto-rickshaw driver operating between Chandigarh’s southern sectors and Kharar, was first rounded up by police on a complaint of his woman friend and her father. Though the two parties reached a compromise, Kavi turned into a police informer.
“He would stand outside liquor shops and provide the tip-offs to police about liquor smugglers, in lieu of incentives,” said Jagadale. After getting to know about police functioning and loopholes, he formed the gang of vehicle thieves.