New Delhi, April 13: Delhi police on Saturday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle lifters operating in and around the national capital region (NCR) and arrested five people, along with the recovery of 14 cars that were reported stolen in the past.

The arrested accused include two vehicle lifters and three buyers of stolen vehicles. "14 cars and electronic devices used in the commission of crime were recovered from their possession," they said.

According to police, following the incidents of vehicle thefts, a special team was constituted and a probe was initiated into the same. The team studied the pattern of the incidents of theft, the time of thefts, and CCTV footage of areas from which the vehicles were reported stolen.

During the investigation, officials found that the accused mostly operated at midnight and targeted SUVs. They also revealed that it was only a few minutes' work for the accused to open and start the vehicle and flee with it. The accused thieves used electronic devices to bypass the security of the vehicles.

The team gathered information about the various gangs operating in Delhi and tried to follow their movements through technical surveillance. The team also took the help of informers and zeroed in on a gang headed by Harpreet Singh, alias Smarty.

On March 18, the team received secret information that Harpreet Singh, a permanent resident of Patiala, Punjab, and presently residing in Delhi, would be coming in a black-coloured stolen KIA Seltos with a fake number plate along with his associate, namely Akhlaq.

Based on the details, the team laid a trap at Indraprastha Park and successfully intercepted the KIA car. The car had a fake registration plate and caught two people, including 34-year-old Harpreet Singh. The other accused was identified as Akhlaq Khan, a resident of Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

On verifying the details of the engine number and chassis number, the car was found stolen at U/s 379 IPC, PS Rajender Nagar, New Delhi. On checking the vehicle, a forged RC, one tablet, a key, a drill machine, 10 screwdrivers, three torches, one cutter plier, hammers, an iron rod, a wire cutter, 61 blank remote keys, and eight mechanical keys were recovered, which were supposed to be used in stealing cars, the police said.

On checking his criminal history, Harpreet Singh was found to be a habitual offender, having been involved in 40 similar cases.

During interrogation, both accused persons disclosed that they had stolen a large number of luxury cars. They mostly stole Creta Hyundai and Seltos Kia cars and sold those to receivers based in Meerut and Punjab.

This gang has stolen about 50-60 cars during the last four months. During sustained interrogation, they disclosed information about their associates as well. Several raids were conducted at different places, and three more accused persons, Sukhdev, Mandeep, and Amandeep (receivers of stolen vehicles), were arrested from Punjab with the recovery of 13 more stolen cars. Thus, 14 luxury cars have been recovered from the possession of the accused. Harpreet Singh is found to be a proclaimed offender in three cases.

The accused revealed a unique modus operandi to steal the cars through OBD (on-board diagnostic).
DCP Crime Sanjay Sain said that all modern cars have an onboard diagnostic port that authorises bona fide technicians to access the vehicle's main frame and check for errors in the vehicle's electronics, engine, and other systems.

The prime accused, Harpreet Singh, a B-Tech graduate with good knowledge about vehicles, used this port to download the cars' original digital key onto a blank key, thereby stealing these cars through these Chinese scanners, namely X-tool. The tablet recovered from the possession of the accused persons is a Chinese-made "X-tool," the DCP pointed out. (ANI)

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