The Lucknow police said they have seized 62 cars including luxury four-wheelers from a gang of car thieves on Tuesday, a month after they seized 50 cars from the same gang.
Police said the 112 cars are worth ₹11 crore.
Twelve people, including the owners of a second-hand car sales market, motor spare parts’ traders, mechanics as well as insurance agents were arrested. The gang had been operational for at least 20 years, police said.
Police officials said these stolen vehicles were sold to politicians, businessmen and other white-collar people after preparing forged papers and changing their chassis numbers and registration plates. The cars included Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Honda City, Innova, Safari and Swift Dzire.
Lucknow’s Commissioner of Police (CP) Sujeet Pandey said the team led by Vibhuti Khand assistant commissioner of police Swatantra Kumar Singh recovered 62 luxury four wheelers from different places after the arrest of seven people on Tuesday.
He said that earlier, five people were arrested and 50 luxury four wheelers were recovered on June 21. Interrogation of those arrested and a subsequent investigation led to Tuesday’s developments.
{{/usCountry}}He said that earlier, five people were arrested and 50 luxury four wheelers were recovered on June 21. Interrogation of those arrested and a subsequent investigation led to Tuesday’s developments.
{{/usCountry}}ACP Swatantra Kumar Singh said the recovery of 112 luxury four wheelers from a vehicle lifters’ gang is the biggest catch ever in terms of number of vehicles. He said 104 four-wheelers had been recovered from a single gang by the Maharashtra police a few years ago.
“The entire operation to identify and trace gang members lasted for over a month, during which electronic surveillance as well as traditional ways of ground intelligence helped unearth the entire nexus,” said the ACP.
He said the gang may have sold over 2,000 stolen vehicles to different people in the past 10 years. The stolen vehicles were sold in different parts of the country and even in Nepal, the police officer said.
Singh said those arrested on Tuesday included the key accused Satpal Singh, who deals in sale of stolen four-wheelers through different mediums, including second hand car sales market as well as online platforms.
Among the other six were four spare parts’ traders Manoj Kumar alias Bauwa, Enamule Haq, Vikas Jasiwal alias Vicky and Zia-ul-Haq, and two persons Israr and Vinod Sharma, who work in car repairing and denting workshops.
“Before selling these at throwaway prices, they changed the chassis and engine numbers of these vehicles,” the ACP explained.
“The vehicle’s details were verified from the forensic lab, which confirmed that it was stolen and its engine and chassis numbers were changed,” he said.
MODUS OPERANDI
The gang members first bought cars which were totally damaged in accidents and also acquired the papers of these vehicles from owners. They would then steal a car of the same make and replace its engine and chassis numbers with that of the damaged car. They also changed the identification chip of the vehicle. After making these changes, they used to sell the car to a gullible customer.