Steal a drive to the Northeast

Northeastern states are fast becoming the new safe haven for auto-lifters

Steal a drive to the Northeast

Northeastern states are fast becoming the new safe haven for auto-lifters

If your car had been stolen in Delhi chances were that it would land in the western Uttar Pradesh town of Meerut, where it would be broken down or sold on forged papers.

But that is the old story.

The latest update on the car theft story is that if you are on the lookout for your stolen vehicle you should head towards the picturesque Northeastern states.

According to the police, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are becoming favourite havens for the auto-lifter gangs active in the city.

There has been a substantial increase in the number of stolen cars being recovered from there.

According to senior police officials, most of the inter-state auto-lifters send the cars to the Northeast within 24 hours of the heist.

The cars are then received by a person there who would then through his contacts forges the registration papers and sell them.

Satyendra Garg, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) said, "About a thousand stolen vehicles land up in the Northeast every year.

Many of our investigations have led us there. The auto- lifters have been increasingly using the Northeastern states to sell stolen vehicles."

Recently the Crime Branch of the Delhi police busted one of the biggest inter-state auto-lifter gangs.

The police claimed that the gang was behind more than 500 car thefts and hoped to recover hundreds of cars stolen by the gang.

Two of the main gang members Moti ur Rehman who was based in Assam and Ravi alias Bhoop Singh had met in Tihar jail when they were booked for a similar case around seven years ago.
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Ravi who has over 50 cases of auto-lifting lodged against him had become a veteran and stopped doing the field work.

He masterminded the transfer of stolen cars to the Northeastern states.u00a0 Sources in the Crime Branch said that Ravi used to change both his mobile phone and sim card every two days to escape survellience by the police.u00a0
"The cars were stolen on demand.

Moti would first give a missed call to Ravi and then he would place the order for the vehicle. They break open a Honda City car in just three minutes while demonstrating their modus operandi before us," a police official said, requesting anonymity.

The stolen cars were sent to the North East with the help of some transporters who used to send the cars in trucks, often booked by defence and government officials who go there on posting.
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In case no truck was available one of the gang members would drive the car to its destination by putting up a Press sticker.

"Mostly, they steal high-end cars and the gang member who transports the car sports a sophisticated look to decieve the cops," Crime Branch sources said.

Out of the nine members of the gang, atleast four have MCOCA cases slapped against them.

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