NEW DELHI: Three members of a car lifters’ gang, allegedly involved in around 100 cases of vehicle theft and burglaries, have been arrested by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch and two cars, 10 LEDs and sophisticated tools were recovered from their possession.
Suspects Laxmi Narayan alias Bittu (50), Mukesh Kumar alias Vicky (38) and Ramu (25) are members of the gang being run by a notorious auto-lifter Gurbax alias Rinku alias Manpreet Paji, police said, adding Gurbax is absconding.
The Crime Branch officials said they received an information that members of the auto-lifters-cum-burglars would come near Dichao Depot, Nangloi-Najafgarh road for disposal of stolen articles in a Maruti Brezza car.
A trap was laid to nab the suspects and the Brezza was found stolen from Munirka area, the officials said, adding 10 LED’s of different companies, stolen from a godown at Tikri Border, were recovered from the car. At their instance, another Maruti car, stolen from Kanjhawla area, was recovered from near Jalebi Chowk, Sultanpuri. On checking, a bag containing sophisticated tools used for vehicle thefts and burglaries was recovered.
To hoodwink the police, the gang members used ‘numerology coding’ for communication and saved their associates’ phone numbers by putting a number to an alphabet. They even maintained their own hideouts separately so that even if one of them was caught, he won’t be able to reveal the location of others.
Ravindra Yadav, special commissioner of police, Crime Branch, said, “During the course of interrogation, they disclosed that they do not show their hideouts to each other. They had taken rooms on rent in different areas of Mundka and Sultanpuri for hiding the booty. So that, they could not be traced even after arrest of any one of their associates. They switch on their phones only at specific timing to share place of meeting with other gang members by using these codes. Then, they reach at the decided place of meeting and again switch off their phones”. They used to save the numbers of their associates by designating a number to an alphabet, added Yadav.
Gurbax was previously involved in more than 40 cases and wanted in several cases of auto-thefts in Delhi.
The arrested men told the police that their gang leader has bought a specialized device from abroad to trace specific location of GPS in a car. They use laptops and tabs to unlock the cars and coding/decoding of the keys. Raids are being conducted to arrest the kingpin and other members of the gang, police added.
