- India,
- 02-Jul-2021 04:11 PM IST
New Delhi: Five members of a gang involved in over 500 cases of vehicle theft in Delhi-NCR were arrested on Thursday, police said. Ten vehicles were recovered from them, they said.The suspects were identified as Harun, Gulfam, Amit, Sajid and Yusuf.According to police, the gang had been active for over seven years and its leader, Harun, has been nabbed for the first time. At least four more members of the gang have been identified and efforts are on to arrest them, police said.“The suspects were involved in a few thefts under the Sector 24 police jurisdiction a while back and were captured in the CCTV footage. They were arrested in a joint effort by teams from sectors 24 and 58 police and the anti-vehicle theft unit,” said a senior police official.Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), zone 1, said that the gang would roam around and target a parked luxury vehicle.“They kept tools and master key fobs with them, along with requisite softwares to break into cars. In June alone, they have stolen 18 vehicles in NCR and over 500 so far in the past seven years. They would change the engine and chassis numbers of the vehicles and sell them in Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Nepal, and Jammu and Kashmir. The gang was also involved in vehicle modification,” said the ACP.The gang would use code ‘pigeon’ for the vehicles and was known as the pigeon gang in its circle, said police.“We have also identified a Delhi-based scrap dealer to whom a lot of vehicles were sold by the gang. SUVs like Fortuner or Innova were sold for over ₹3 lakh, while Scorpio for ₹2.5 lakh,” said Verma.According to police, the suspects would also steal vehicles involved in accidents which were sold for parts and their specifics used to produce documents of other stolen cars. Police said they have also recovered several sets of duplicate number plates, key fobs, and tools from them.The suspects were produced before a magistrate and later sent to jail, police said.