Noida: Eight members of a gang that allegedly stole scores of luxury vehicles, including Fortuner, Creta and Honda City, in NCR and sold them off in Gujarat and J&K through their agents have been arrested.
Police said the accused would first break the windows of the vehicles parked at different locations across NCR and then make a copy of the key on the spot using a scanner tablet tool to flee with them. A scanner tablet tool can read the entire data of the car’s system once connected with the vehicle.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Asif, Mohammed Ashraf Bhat, Ravi Solanki, Kuldeep Kumar, Mohammed Hasan, Manoj Pal, Rajesh Sharma and Mohammed Amir. While Kuldeep and Hasan were the main masterminds, Moradabad resident Asif was the main connection with the agents based in Gujarat and J&K.
Sources told TOI that Kuldeep had been staying in a PG belonging to a local politician, and the gang used fake ID cards of a senior central government official to ensure smooth movement of the stolen vehicles while travelling within the states and between other states.
“At times, the vehicles would be stolen on demand by the accused at the behest of agents, Mohammed Ilias and Mohammed Imtiaz. Ilias would provide the data of accidental or damaged vehicles to Imtiaz, who is from Kashmir but stays in Ahmedabad. Both Ilias and Imtiaz would create fake registration certificates on the basis of the data,” additional commissioner of police (law and order) Love Kumar said.
Police have recovered 10 vehicles, including four Fortuners, three Swift, one Creta, one Honda City and one Duster, which have been traced to have been stolen from across Noida, Delhi and Ghaziabad.