Nine held in Delhi for auto thefts

Nine members of an interstate gang of automobile thieves, including a civil engineering degree holder, involved in nearly 500 cases of auto thefts in Delhi and adjoining areas in two years, have been arrested, police said on Tuesday.

Seven stolen cars and 177 smart keys were seized from one of the gang members. Police teams also seized high-end diagnostic kit and imported keys-making machine used to unlock high-end cars.

Police said gang kingpin Subhash Tiwari, Jitender Kumar, Neeraj Tiwari, Naresh Chawla, Nasir, Shaukat Ali, Mohsin, Wasim, and Aashim are resident of Gurugram in Haryana, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and Kalyanpuri in Delhi.

They were arrested during raid on August 20 and 28 from their hideouts in Delhi.

A fake National Highway Authority of India identity card the gang members used to evade detection at toll plazas was also seized from them, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh said.

Neeraj and Jitender were going to meet their accomplice in Mahipalpur area in a stolen car on August 20 when they were intercepted near the Rajokari flyover, the officer added.

On the basis of information given by the two, Naresh Chawla was arrested from Gurugram.

Police said Subhash Tiwari, a civil engineering degree holder, came in contact with automobile thieves and started his own gang after his business ventures failed in 2010.

Tiwari had allegedly developed a vast network of forgers of registration papers, and chassis number punchers and sold the stolen vehicles in north-eastern states through his network.

--IANS

sp/tsb