One held, but 100 lift-and-loot gangs active in region, says Gurugram Police

In the majority of such crimes, there was minimal use of firearms. Gang members mostly threatened the victims with physical violence or assaulted them a little to scare them into compliance.

The lift-and-loot gang busted earlier this week was the 16th such gang to be busted in the last one year. However, there may be little respite for commuters, who are often picked up by these gangs on the pretext of being offered lifts. Once onboard, the gang members assault, loot and finally abandon their targets before fleeing.

Four of the gang members who allegedly robbed people while sharing cabs and rides (HT Photo)

According to the police, there are nearly 100 more such gangs based in Nuh that operate on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway. The police say they have identified 50 of such gangs and have roped in specialised crime teams and cyber experts to track them.

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that they are questioning the suspects regarding the whereabouts of the other gang members. “We are carrying out a crime-mapping exercise of the spots. Once the data is ready, the crime teams will conduct raids at the suspected locations and arrest the suspects. More than 30 cars have been identified so far, which have been used in such crimes but not yet recovered. We have also written to the road transport authority to get their addresses and their dates of registration to cull out the details of the car owners,” he said.

“The gang members usually have close connections with one other. They know one another and their areas of operations. Most of them divide their areas and operate at different hours of the night. The gang leaders also get members registered with car aggregators to ensure that they are part of the network,” Sangwan said.

The police said the gangs from Nuh operate very strategically and ensure that their victims do not suffer any serious injury, which could invite the police to invoke serious sections of the criminal laws against them. In the majority of such crimes, there was minimal use of firearms. Gang members mostly threatened the victims with physical violence or assaulted them a little to scare them into compliance.

In the past decade, the police have busted at least 100 such gangs. In November 2006, the Gururgam police had busted the first of such gangs. A total of nine men, aged between 18 and 32 years and hailing from Bhora Kalan village on NH-8, were arrested for killing almost 40 people in lift-and-loot incidents on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. In November 2009, a fast-track court announced life sentence for five of the nine suspects involved.

The police said that since then, numerous new gangs have emerged. “The modus operandi of these criminals have changed. They avoid violence and focus on getting the money and valuables to escape major punishment. Some of them have been operating as cab drivers and take the opportunity to commit a crime once or twice in a week, and operate normally for the rest of the week. This helps them to evade detection,” Sangwan said.

The Gurugram Police is coordinating with the police officials in Nuh to get more details of these gangs. Sangeeta Kalia, superintendent of police, Nuh, said that they cannot take direct action against the suspects if a case is not registered in their district. However, they do provide the data asked from them by the Gurugram police. “Our teams assist the concerned police teams during the raids. We also help them with tip-offs regarding the suspects and their hideouts,” she said.