The Delhi police have busted a crime syndicate involved in the theft and sale of more than 500 high-end luxury cars from Delhi and NCR. According to reports, the Delhi police have nabbed three key members of the syndicate that robbed high-end cars. The kingpin Waseem has been operating in Delhi, Jaunpur and Raipur in Chhattisgarh for the last five years and has been involved in the theft of more than 500 cars.
Waseem, assisted by a close associate Riyaz, had stolen fifteen luxury stolen vehicles such as Fortuner, Creta, Brezza, Skoda, Ertiga, with one Royal Enfield motorcycle have been recovered. The gang sold the vehicles in the Naxal-hit areas making it difficult for them to be recovered.
Reportedly, Waseem and his close associate Riyaz had formed a gang of auto-lifters about 5-6 years back. They purchased damaged cars’ scrap from the portals of different insurance companies and websites along with the original documents. Thereafter, they stole the cars of the same make, model and colour from Delhi/NCR and replaced it with the details of the scrapped cars by tampering with the engine and chassis numbers.
“These stolen cars would be sold later in small towns like Jaunpur, Raipur etc., through car dealers. They’d change the details so skillfully that even the transport authorities and finance companies could not detect the tampering. The gang then established its base in the Naxal-hit areas for selling the stolen vehicles to make it difficult for such vehicles to be recovered,” said Deepak Yadav, DCP East Delhi.
Rajikullah Khan, a 33-year-old resident of Raipur in Chhattisgarh became part of the gang in 2018. His role was to sell the stolen cars with tampered chassis and engine numbers in Raipur.
Another accused Satish Kumar, a resident of Nand Nagri in Delhi, is a car painter. Kumar had come in contact with Waseem who persuaded him to join them and asked him to deliver the stolen cars to the receivers at various places. Another accused Kunal Yadav, also came in contact with Waseem in 2018, who enticed him with the promise of easy money.
Kunal bought scrapped cars from the web portals of various insurance companies and car dealers and turned them over to Waseem. The kingpin Waseem, who has gone absconding is yet to be arrested and several teams have been formed to arrest him.