Delhi Police busts inter-state vehicle theft syndicate; three held, 16 high-end cars recovered

Delhi Police has dismantled an inter-state motor vehicle theft syndicate with the arrest of three alleged members and recovery of 16 high-end stolen vehicles, an official said on Sunday.

The case originated from the theft of an SUV (Hyundai Creta) from Delhi’s Pitampura on August 5. An e-FIR was registered and the matter was transferred to the Crime Branch on September 5 last year. A breakthrough came on December 24 when a team received information about a person from Jalandhar (Punjab) who allegedly received stolen vehicles, police said.

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The informer disclosed that several stolen vehicles from Delhi, including the SUV involved in the case, were allegedly in his possession. On December 25, a team conducted a raid in Jalandhar and apprehended Damandeep Singh alias Lucky (42), who was allegedly running a second-hand car sale and purchase business. During the search of his premises, four Kia Seltos vehicles were allegedly recovered and later confirmed to have been stolen from Delhi.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Singh was allegedly the mastermind of a well-organised inter-state syndicate involved in vehicle theft, forgery and resale. The gang procured stolen vehicles as well as loan-default vehicles from Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and transported them to Punjab, according to the police.

“During interrogation, Singh disclosed that several stolen vehicles with fake registration numbers were sold in Delhi through Amandeep Singh, a resident of Pitampura. Acting on this information, Amandeep Singh (39) was arrested from his residence in Delhi. He was found to be running a furniture shop in Kirti Nagar and acted as a middleman and field operative for the syndicate,” the officer said.

The police said Amandeep allegedly facilitated the movement of stolen vehicles from Delhi to Punjab and introduced potential buyers to Damandeep and his associates. On his instance, four stolen Toyota Fortuner SUVs were recovered.

Another accused, Arvind Sharma (38), a resident of Chandigarh and BTech graduate who previously worked at a software company, was identified as the person responsible for allegedly preparing forged vehicle documents. The police said Sharma had allegedly been involved in document forgery since 2019 and played a key role in enabling the illegal re-registration of stolen vehicles.

Sharing the modus operandi about the gang, the officer said stolen vehicles were first sourced from Delhi and NCR through vehicle thieves. These vehicles were then transported to Punjab, where their original chassis numbers were tampered with or replaced using chassis numbers of total-loss vehicles. Forged sale letters and fabricated no-objection certificates from banks were prepared to create a false ownership trail.

Using these forged documents, the vehicles were fraudulently registered in different states, mainly Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, to make them appear genuine. Once re-registered, the vehicles were sold to unsuspecting customers at competitive prices.

So far, the police have recovered 16 high-end vehicles, including eight Toyota Fortuner, five Kia Seltos, a Honda Venue, a Hyundai Creta and a Mahindra Thar. The police said further investigation is underway to trace other members of the syndicate.