Five suspected auto-lifters who exploited "vulnerability in lock system" of old model vehicles to steal them have been arrested in South Delhi, police said today.
They claimed that with the arrest on September 27 and 28 of Lokesh, Anil Kumar Gautam, Nitin, Jitender and Raunak Ali and recovery of three vehicles from them they have worked out 36 cases of vehicle thefts.
"The accused used to specifically target vehicles of old models such as Maruti Esteem, Maruti Zen, Maruti 800, Santro and Wagon-R as these could be easily stolen using a specially-designed master key," DCP(South) Ishwar Singh said.
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He said that after stealing a vehicle, the accused would click its photographs and send it across to prospective buyers through Whatsapp to negotiate the price, he said.
Singh said two complaints of car theft from Kishangarh village were lodged at the Vasant Kunj (north) police station on August 9.
After analyses of the CCTV footage from the area, it was suspected that three persons had committed the theft and two auto-lifters were identified, he said.
Based on a specific input, Anil Kumar Gautam and his associate Lokesh were arrested from West Delhi on September 27 and a stolen Esteem car, its number plate, and bunch of master keys, were recovered, said the officer.
After their interrogation, the buyer of some of the stolen vehicles, Raunak Ali, was arrested from Mehrauli on September 28, he said.
He said other accused were also arrested the same day and some vehicles were recovered from them, he said.
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