Mastermind behind stealing & selling SUVs to northeast states arrested

New Delhi: A 26-year-old man, who used to receive the demand of SUVs from a Manipur-based gang following which he used to steal the vehicles, has been arrested.

Several SUVs have been stolen by the accused -- identified as Mohd. Faraz, a resident of district Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in the last one year, a police officer said on Friday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chandan Chowdhary said that on October 22, one SUV, Mahindra Thar, was reported to be stolen from near APJ School, Malviya Nagar.

Next day, on October 23, another SUV, a Toyota Fortuner, was stolen from the Malviya Nagar area.

The DCP said that in view of these incidents, a police team collected CCTV footage of the vicinity of both the crime spots and briefly analysed them to get any clue about the auto lifters.

While analysing CCTV footage, it was revealed that 2-3 persons came in a car and stole both the cars.

After receiving specific inputs, the accused was nabbed when he came to Begumpur, Malviya Nagar to execute the plan of theft of another car.

During questioning, Faraz disclosed that he had stolen the Innova car from the Greater Kailash area about two months ago while he had stolen several cars during the last one year.

Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the Special CP said that Faraz and his associates received the demand of a particular type of car from the Manipur-based gang. "Thereafter, they searched/recce for the same car in the Delhi area. They used a stolen car in search of that particular car and when they found the car, they planned to steal the car. During the wee hours, they reached the spot and used to break the lock of the window or glass of the car. Thereafter, they stole the car and fled away from the spot," said the DCP