Auto-lifters' gang busted; 3 held

Three persons have been arrested for allegedly being part of a gang of auto-lifters with police saying that 10 cars and five motorcycles were recovered from the accused.
South district police said today that they apprehended two persons -- identified as brothers Sanjeev and Shekhar Tomar, residents of Burari -- after a trap was laid on Press Enclave Road based on specific inputs.
The duo was moving in an SUV and tried to escape by breaking through the barricade, but were prevented from doing so by the police personnel who managed to stop the vehicle and overpower its occupants, said Rajeev Ranjan, Additional DCP(II) of South district.

The duo failed to produce the documents for the vehicle, added Ranjan.
During questioning, they said they had stolen the vehicle about one year ago from the Anand Vihar area and were going to dispose it of in the Gurgaon area.
They confessed to stealing about 30 cars and five motorcycles in the Delhi-NCR area in the recent past.

According to police, after stealing a vehicle, they used to dispose it of to a Meerut resident, identified as Shoaib, who placed demands for specific luxury cars and paid them Rs 50,000 per vehicle.
Shoaib has, meanwhile, been arrested on the basis of information provided by the Tomar brothers.

Shoaib told police that he used to collect the documents of totally damaged vehicles from scrap dealers in Meerut and arrange the ECMs (Engine Control Modules) of the vehicles according to the documents.
The ECMs would be given to Sanjeev and Shekhar for theft of the demanded vehicle. The chassis numbers of stolen vehicles were then tampered by him to match the papers of totally damaged vehicles to be sold to customers in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, police added.