Four auto thieves, including dismissed IRB Constable, held

Four persons, including a dismissed Constable of the Indian Reserve Battalion from Manipur and an MBA passout, have been arrested from south Delhi on charge of stealing automobiles, police said on Wednesday.

Abdul Gaffar Khan, 34; MBA degree holder Aksar Ahmed, 34; Mohammad Fakruddin, 31, a dismissed IRB Constable; and Sorokhaibam Chorijit Singh, 25, were members of an interstate gang of automobile thieves and stayed in Kotla Mubarakpur and Malviya Nagar.

"The accused were arrested between March 27 and April 8. Eight countrymade pistols and 16 stolen vehicles, including a BMW, two Fortuners, two Honda City, five Hyundai Creta, a Chevrolet Cruz, were seized," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

"The accused tampered with chassis numbers and sold the vehicles in Manipur," Baaniya said.

They told police they had taken more than 50 stolen cars to Manipur, where these were registered at offices of District Transport Officers (DTOs) in Manipur.

The gang was active in Haryana's Gurugram and west Delhi, including Najafgarh, since 2017.

On a tip-off, police arrested Aksar Ahmed on the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road on March 27 when he was on way to deliver a countrymade pistol to his contact in Saket in a stolen car.

Aksar told police he had started a call centre in Gurugram but suffered financial losses. He later joined a gang of drug suppliers and was arrested by the Special Cell. After release from jail, Aksar joined the co-accused in stealing vehicles, the police officer said.

Fakruddin was dismissed from service after he was found involved in auto thefts, he added.

--IANS

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