Auto-lifters gang busted in Ghaziabad, 11 cars seized

GHAZIABAD - An inter-state gang of auto lifters was busted in Ghaziabad Monday with the arrest of five members and 11 stolen cars were recovered along with the articles used to fabricate fake documents, police said.

Ghaziabad’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raghuvir Lal said that based on a tip-off from an informer, the special operations group (SOG) nabbed a car thief from Galand area under Musari police station area of Ghaziabad Monday and recovered a stolen Maruti 800 car from him.

During interrogation, the auto-lifter, identified as Praveen Chaudhary of Muzaffarnagar, confessed that he was engaged in stealing cars in Ghaziabad, Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Delhi.

On his information, police arrested four other members of the gang - Amit of Ghaziabad, Jagdish, Bhupendra and Mukesh, all residents of Bulandshahr - and recovered 10 vehicles from their possession. Police further recovered fake identity cards, driving licences and, registration certificates and a computer, a printer, a scanner used to prepare the fake papers.

Divulging details, Chaudhary said the auto-lifting ring was a four-tier network. The first tier members used to steal the cars ans were paid Rs.10,000 to Rs.15,000, the second tier prepared the false documents, the third tier sold the stolen cars while the members of the fourth tier realized the money.

Revealing the method of fabricating the documents, Chaudhary said he had scanned and saved a copy of a registration certificate (RC) on his computer, and used to make copies by filling the columns. A printout was handed over to the buyer after putting the “official seals” and “signatures” of the registration authority concerned.

The SSP said that investigations were on and efforts were being made to arrest the other members of the gang.