NEW DELHI, March 21: With the arrest of six men the Crime Branch claims to have busted an international gang of auto-lifters, and worked out 45 cases of vehicle theft. Four cars -- a Tata Safari, a Tata Sumo and two Marutis -- have been recovered. The police have also seized 323 blank registration forms, rubber stamps, tools to make keys and a German-made electronic typewriter. On Friday, a police team nabbed four people in a stolen car in Sarojini Nagar. They were identified as Anil Chauhan (28), Vinod Kumar (20), Ajay Kumar and Mohammed Alam (20).The police say Ajay spoke English fluently and was carrying a cellular phone. He claimed to be a wealthy resident of Defence Colony and the owner of the car, and even produced fake registration papers. The police say Ajay broke down under sustained interrogation, and some fake registration books and number plates were recovered from him. Cars have also been recovered from two Nepali nationals -- Kishen Bahadur and Sher Singh -- who had come to Delhi to take the vehicles to Ganga Bahadur, a resident of Bir Ganj in Nepal.
The police say the gang had been operating for the past five months. ``In this short span they had committed so many thefts that they didn't even know the number of vehicles stolen,'' said an official. The gang would target vehicles in posh colonies in the south, south-west and New Delhi districts. They would steal the car and change the number plate, before packing it off to Nepal.
Alam is an expert locksmith and earlier had a shop in the Hauz Khas market. It was here that he reportedly came in contact with Chauhan. Kumar is a native of Assam and, according to the police, his work was to prepare fake registration papers.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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