Two of vehicle-lifter gang in cop net

Ludhiana: Salem Tabri police have arrested two members of a vehicle-lifter gang on Friday. Cops also recovered two stolen cars, eight two-wheelers and dissembled parts of three cars besides 71 fake stamps. It is alleged that the accused used to make fake documents with the help of these stamps to sell stolen vehicles.
The arrested accused have been identified as Prem Singh, 44, of Bajara village and Suresh Kumar, 58, of Hari Singh Nagar. Police have recovered vehicles form the possession of Prem— the kingpin of the gang— and stamps form Suresh.

The additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP-1) Gurpreet Singh Sikand said the division number four police on January 4 arrested two vehicle lifters named Jassi and Akash solving more than 55 cases of vehicle lifting. Akash is Prem Singh’s stepson. The gang used to steal two wheelers and cars using master keys and were more active in Zone-1 of Ludhiana commissionerte. After arrest of Akash and Jassi, Prem Sing fled to Haridwar however returned in February.

“After returning to city Prem Singh again stole two cars one from Salem Tabri area on February 26 and one from division number four area on March 4. While investigating this case, SHO at Salem Tabri police station managed to nab Prem Singh from his house on Meharban area and recovered vehicles. On further information provided by Prem Singh the police reached to Suresh Kumar,” he added.

Further the SHO Vijay Kumar said, “It is an old gang. While Prem Singh, his son Akash and aid Jassi used to steal vehicles, their accomplice Suresh used to make fake registration certificates of vehicles to sell it. Some of the vehicles were also sold to a scrap dealer named Kashmir Singh of Dera Bajigar who is yet to be arrested.”

“Police have recovered 71 stamps of regional transport office, senior medical officer and other officials whose documents are needed to sell a vehicle. The accused also have stamps of different districts and states like Pathankot, Patiala, Amritsar, Jammu, Mumbai and so on. They used to charge anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 to issue fake certificates,” the SHO added.

When asked the expected numbers of vehicles stolen and sold by accused with fake documents, ADCP Sikand said the figure is expected to exceed 100. It has also come to our notice that vehicle lifters from other districts used to come to Suresh to get forged documents for selling vehicles again.

The officials said that the gang had been active since 2018. In 2016, Prem Singh was arrested by Jammu police in a drug case. It was during his tenure in jail when he met Jassi and formed their gang including his son Akash.