Interstate car thief arrested, stole over 200 SUVs: Police

An interstate gang of vehicle lifters from Nagaland was busted on Wednesday, said police

An interstate gang of vehicle lifters from Nagaland was busted on Wednesday, said police. The kingpin of the gang has been arrested and two SUVs worth ₹70 lakh recovered from his possession.

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The police said the suspect, identified as Kikheto Achuri of Dimapur in Nagaland, used to replace the chassis and engine numbers of stolen cars and sell them in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Haryana.

His two close aides were arrested last December from Sector 29 while they were allegedly trying to steal an SUV.

The police said Achuri confessed to having stolen more than 200 SUVs from Gurugram, Faridabad, Rohtak, Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida in the last two years. The police said that the gang used to take less than three minutes to steal a car and they used to steal at least two vehicles a day.

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that they have recovered four high-security number plates of the Arunachal Pradesh authority. “We have recovered a hi-tech gadget that can hack into security systems of cars with advanced lock mechanisms. They unlocked cars by using the device to hack the vehicles’ engine control module. The thieves use the device to break into cars by unlocking it without breaking windows,” he said.

The gang bought the gadget for ₹2 lakh, said Sangwan, adding that they targeted posh areas of the city and sold each SUV for ₹5 lakh.

Sangwan said the gang used to meet second-hand car dealers in different cities and offer them good margins to sell these cars. “The stolen vehicles were sold with new identities along with original looking documents in Gurugram, Faridabad, Rohtak, Hisar, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Rajasthan,” he said.

The police said that all gang members are repeat offenders. The police said the suspects were wanted by Meghalaya, Kolkata, Haryana and Manipur police for the last one year.

“We are questioning the suspect to know all details of people involved in sale and purchase of these stolen vehicles,” said KK Rao, the commissioner of police.

Rao said the suspects used to steal cars from Delhi-NCR and travel to other places. They had all documents handy due to which they went under the radar and were allowed to cross interstate borders.

The police said the suspects used to do the rounds of the city to identify their targets in the day and steal vehicles using a master key in the night.