Dark underbelly of Mewat

Sumedha Sharma

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While Gurugram and Delhi struggle to control vehicle thefts, a few non-descript villages around 100 km away in Mewat have been thriving on thievery and trade in stolen vehicles for decades. Ask old residents of Gurugram, and you will hear tales of how a vehicle that crossed Sohna Chowk and headed towards Mewat was considered untraceable even by the police or how the entire village was trained in dismantling vehicles within minutes and how the men there could arrange vehicles of any make and colour within 10 days. All this was dismissed as sensational stories till a year and a half ago when over 500 personnel of the Haryana Police raided infamous Luhigakalan village and recovered 70 stolen motorcycles, four cars and a tractor. The villagers though insisted that the vehicles hidden in inner rooms of their houses or suspended in wells were theirs, they could not produce any document in support of their claims. 

The raid drew everybody's attention to the village, which is known as the nerve centre of vehicle thefts in the national capital region (NCR). Along with other villages such as Jamal Garh and Devla Nangli and Chorgarhi on the Haryana Rajasthan border, the area is a hub of the flourishing stolen vehicle trade. These villages are not only home to expert vehicle lifters, who are not only trained to steal and dismantle vehicles and dispose of motor parts but are also notorious for guarding their boundaries. The villagers harbour vehicle thieves and also stop policemen from entering their villages. Women and children are known to stage attacks on police parties raiding their villages in search of stolen vehicles. As you travel across the stretch, you will see small puncture repair shops or sheds where curious but vigilant boys keep a watch on every vehicle or person passing by or stopping there. Known as keepers of village gates, these boys not only lead prospective buyers or sellers of stolen vehicles into their village but also sound the alarm on the slightest suspicion of a police raid. While the police remain tightlipped, the fact is that every house here is a motor workshop.  Sources say that at least one male member of each family is involved in vehicle lifting and their further trade, while boys are trained in hiding and dismantling vehicles within half an hour. Everyday these boys gather at workshops to practise how to dismantle vehicles, using stopwatches till they are ready for the risky job.

It is said that Luhigakalan village receives at least 10 stolen motorcycles everyday from Haryana and Rajasthan. Dealers from Alwar and Bharatpur gather in the village to bid for the best vehicles while the remaining are dismantled and sold in neighbouring Jamal Garh village, which is the biggest market of spare parts. Mechanics from the NCR come to the village for cheap spare parts and it is said that from screws of a local Indian motorcycle to costly parts of Harley Davidson motorcycles are available here. 

In Chorgarhi village on the Haryana-Rajasthan border, villagers are expert in hiding and dismantling four-wheelers, repainting them and even getting rid of their key details such as chassis number. They then sell the redone vehicles in nearby Rajasthan towns where the paperwork is handled by locals involved in the racket.

For the police these villagers are a hard nut to crack; they don’t reveal much when arrested. “This dark underbelly of Mewat is surely an area of concern for us. We can say that most of the gangs involved in vehicle lifting and their further trade have the Mewat connection. Yes, the illegal market there plays a key role in the nexus of the criminals. We are coordinating with both Mewat and Rajasthan police. The sharp decline in vehicle lifting cases in Gurugram has strengthened our resolve and we will bust the nexus soon,” says KK Rao, Commissioner of Police, Gurugram.

“Things in these areas are different. If you go to a village to catch criminals or carry out raids, women along with their toddlers lie on the road to block your way while their men hide away. They do not shy even from attacking us or firing at us. No matter how hard you may try, they do not speak up. They do not recognise vehicle lifting and sale of stolen vehicles as a crime but call it a trade,” says a police crime branch official from Mewat.

The villagers are unapologetic about their illegal activities. “What do we do? There are no educational or job opportunities here. When mining was allowed we used to drive and repair trucks to earn our livelihoods. But mining was banned and our driving licences were never renewed. We knew nothing but only vehicles. So, we had to do this and we became experts. Even today our children have no access to any other vocation so they join us,” says Rajjudin, a village elder of Jamal Garh.