Ghaziabad cops bust gang behind 80 car battery thefts, 3 held

Ghaziabad: Police have arrested three members of a gang involved in car battery thefts across Indirapuram. The accused, identified as Parvez (27), Bilal (23), and Iqbal (32) — all from Gokulpuri, Old Delhi — allegedly committed over 80 such thefts last year.
ACP (Indirapuram) Abhishek Srivastava said the arrests were made on Wednesday evening during routine checking. "The accused were travelling in an I-10 car with a fake number plate when police intercepted them. We recovered 16 stolen car batteries from their possession," he said.
During questioning, the trio revealed their modus operandi. "They would change the number plate of their I-10 car and roam the streets at night, scouting vehicles parked outside homes. Using tools, they would remove the batteries, load them into their car's trunk, and flee. Later, they would drive to Delhi and reattach the original licence plate," Srivastava added.
Out of the 16 recovered batteries, five were stolen from a car parked near MG Homes, Sector 3, Vasundhara, on February 17. The remaining were taken on the morning of February 11 from vehicles parked under the Metro bridge in Sector 2B, Vasundhara. The gang had also committed thefts in other areas, police said.
Parvez, one of the accused, owns a scrap shop in Delhi where they stored stolen batteries before selling them after a few days. When asked about the fake number plate and the car, Bilal told police that he had purchased the vehicle some time ago but had not yet registered it in his name.
The accused have been booked under Section 305 (theft) and Section 331(4) (house-trespass or housebreaking by night to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment) of the BNS. Police are also checking their criminal records with other police stations and neighbouring districts.