Haryana Police’s Special Task Force arrests four people involved in stealing luxury cars

The special task force (STF) of Haryana Police, on Sunday, arrested four people — including three officials of the Regional Transport Office(RTO) posted in Meham

The special task force (STF) of Haryana Police, on Sunday, arrested four people — including three officials of the Regional Transport Office(RTO) posted in Meham in Haryana — for allegedly preparing fake documents and selling stolen cars in at least six states. They were involved in stealing cars in Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, said the police.

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The suspects were identified as Praveen Kumar of Dadri, along with Anil Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Sombir Singh of Rohtak. Kumar was allegedly driving a stolen car when he was arrested and revealed the names of the other gang members, who were arrested the same night, the police said. According to the police, there are at least 15 more gang members who re yet to be arrested.

The police have allegedly recovered 14 SUVs from various locations that were stolen from Meerut, Delhi, and Rajasthan and have found forged documents from the possession of the gang members.

The incident came to light after several people complained to the police of their respective areas that their newly bought cars had been stolen. During the investigation, it was found that stolen cars were sold with forged documents after their engine, chassis and registration numbers were changed.

According to the police, the gang would conduct a reconnaissance of the residential areas in different cities and target newly bought luxury cars, which were sold at 50% of the original cost.

“The gang members used to train agents to approach car dealers dealing in second-hand cars and even gave them a commission of ₹50,000 on each sale. They also used to upload pictures of second-hand cars on online advertisement platforms, and would sometimes place advertisements in newspapers in different states,” said Balan.

The police said the suspects used to drive cars to Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and sold them for at least ₹5 lakh each.

Balan said several cases of vehicle theft have been filed against them in different states and they have sold nearly 2,000 cars so far. We do not have exact details of all cases, but the arrested men revealed that only a few vehicle- lifting cases were of Gurugram. We are yet to arrest 15 more members of the gang involved in vehicle-lifting who were part of this gang,” he said.