Inter-state gang of vehicle lifters busted, two held

MOHALI - A gang of vehicle lifters active in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh was busted with the arrest of two people from Kharar town in Punjab’s Mohali district, police said Sunday.

Police also recovered seven stolen cars — one Bolero jeep, one Innova car, three Indigo cars and two Zen cars — worth Rs.33 lakh from the possession of the arrested men, Jovanjeet Singh and Maneel Dhuria.

“The gang was active in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. They stole luxury cars from different parts of these states,” district police chief S.P.S. Bhullar told IANS.

“They made forged registration and insurance papers from an Amritsar-based company and sold the vehicles to gullible customers,” he added.

Interrogation of the accused is on and police are trying to ascertain their links in other states.

“We are sure that many more people are involved in this nexus and police are hopeful of making more recovery of vehicles in the coming days,” Bhullar said.

In another incident, the Haryana Police arrested four robbers from Ferozepur town in Punjab and recovered a stolen Bolero jeep worth Rs.600,000 from their possession.

“The accused hired the vehicle from Rishikesh to Chandigarh June 15. On entering Panchkula district, they beat up the driver, snatched around Rs.7,000, his mobile phone and threw him out of the vehicle before fleeing away,” a Haryana police official said.

He added: “We were on their lookout for the last many days. We arrested them from Ferozepur town late Saturday and recovered the vehicle. Sharp-edged weapons were also seized from them. They will be produced before the local court in Panchkula Sunday.”

Both Panchkula and Mohali towns are around 10 km from Chandigarh.