GURUGRAM: Police on Thursday claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle-lifters that used to steal high-end SUVs in Delhi-NCR, particularly Gurugram, and sell them in the northeastern states by replacing the original number plate with a fake one.
The accused would target only fully automatic SUVs. Once chosen, the gang would break open the vehicle’s lock by a high-end master key that allowed them to circumvent the SUV’s security system, police said. They would then change the registration number of the SUV with that of a scrapped vehicle in the northeastern states and then drive it to Nagaland before selling the same through a network of used car shops.
A team of the Gurugram police’s crime unit nabbed the gang’s kingpin from Nagaland and brought him to Gurugram on Thursday. The accused has been identified as Kikhet.
The kingpin was arrested after two other members of the gang, Ankit and Jalal, who were nabbed by the Gurugram cops from Hisar and Ghaziabad, respectively, last month, had revealed his name during interrogation.
It may be mentioned here that in the past two years, 4,118 and 2,750 vehicles, respectively, were stolen from Gurugram. A number of the stolen vehicles were high-end SUVs, according to the Gurugram police. A high-end Fortuner that costs around Rs 40 lakh is sold for Rs 15 lakh to end users in the used car market in Nagaland. Criminals who steal the vehicle get just Rs 2.5 to Rs 4 lakh for each vehicle, cops said.
The vehicles stolen in Gurugram were transported to Nagaland with new registration plates within a few days of the crime and sold there in the used car market, a senior police official said.
“SUVs like Fortuner and Innova are in high demand in the northeastern states, which is the reason behind the thefts of such vehicles here,” said ACP (crime) Preet Pal Sagwan.
Cops said the devices used by carjackers to bypass the engine control module (ECM) of the vehicles cost anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh and are available online or at workshops. Such devices can start the engine, read error codes and give access to the car’s computer system.