Gang of car thieves busted, 31 of 56 vehicles recovered

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, August 10

The district police claimed to have busted a 10-member interstate gang of car thieves and arrested four of them.

They recovered 31 cars and SUVs worth Rs 3.5 crore from different parts of the state on their disclosure. They confessed to have stolen 56 vehicles.

The police claimed it to be one of the biggest recoveries and with the arrest of six other members, more vehicles are likely to be recovered. The police said the role of insurance company officials was also under scanner.

Patiala zone IG Amardeep Singh Rai and Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Alka Meena said CIA staff, Sirhind incharge, Harminder Singh got a tip-off that Balwinder Singh, alias Saba, of Amritsar, running a workshop at Faridkot, along with his accomplices had been involved in theft of cars. 

The IG said the police followed them and succeeded in arresting Balwinder along with his three accomplices on the Amritsar-Wagah border. The other three arrested are Simarjeet Singh and Sandeep Singh of Faridkot and Mandeep Singh of Amritsar.

Narrating their modus operandi, the SSP said they used to enter the vehicle by breaking the rear windowpane and with the help of a software they used to corrupt the security system and used master keys to start the vehicle.

After taking the vehicle to the workshop at Faridkot, they used to get the chassis, engine number and number plates of totally damaged accidental cars with the help of insurance officials and used in these cars.