Meerut gang of Delhi NCR car lifters busted 8 held in Noida

Noida, Sep 15 (PTI) With the arrest of eight suspects, the Noida Police on Friday said they have busted a key gang involved in the theft of cars in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR).
     The police have recovered 10 cars, including a couple of Toyota Fortuners, Hyundai Cretas, from their possession which were lifted by them from Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida and Gurugram.
     The police suspect that the gang is involved in hundreds of vehicle thefts in Delhi NCR over the years which were sold by them in states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telangana, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
     "It's a complete chain of people involved in the theft of cars. From those breaking the lock and stealing it, then someone who handles the tampering of its chassis number and forgery of documents to buyers of stolen vehicles," DCP (Noida) Harish Chander told reporters.
     "Overall, eight people have been arrested in this case and 10 cars which were stolen from Delhi, Ghaziabad Noida, and Gurugram recovered," said Chander, flanked by Additional DCP Shakti Mohan Avasthy, ACP 1 Rajneesh Verma and ACP 2 Sushil Kumar.
     The case was busted by a joint team of officials from the Sector 20 and the Phase 1 police stations in pursuance of information they had been receiving about the gang, he added.
     ACP Verma said the numbers of some cars have been changed while a couple of cars are almost brand new with no number plates.
     The police said after lifting the cars, the gang would take them to Meerut and keep them in hiding for some days to evade tracking.
     "In Meerut, they used their technique which they called 'thanda karna' (cooling down), which means tapering chassis number, forging documents, uninstalling GPS trackers, if any, or other devices which could lead to the tracking of cars," Verma said.
     The police identified those arrested as gang leader Saqib alias Daddu, Mohd Imran, Monu alias Jamshed, Mohd Farman, Rashid alias Kaala, Mohd Sahibzada, Rohit Mittal and Ranjeet Singh
     Of these, Mittal and Singh -- both residents of Punjab -- were buyers of stolen cars, while all others hailed from Meerut and were involved in theft, the police said.
     An FIR has been lodged against the accused and further legal proceedings are being carried out, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)