Family-run car-lifting gang busted, 3 held

A family-operated automobile lifting syndicate, which allegedly stole over two dozen vehicles in recent months from Delhi's Dwarka area, has been dismantled, the police said on Saturday.

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Raman (56), his son Sagar (31) and his son-in-law Neeraj (29) allegedly stole more than two dozen cars from across Delhi and neighbouring states in the past several months.

The trio formed a close-knit syndicate comprised solely of family members, a strategy devised by the kingpin Raman to minimise the risk of betrayal and leaks of operational information to authorities, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.

“The gang allegedly specialised in stealing high-end vehicles, primarily targeting Maruti Brezza, Swift Dzire, Hyundai Creta and Toyota Fortuner models, most of which were parked near gyms and parks in residential colonies," the DCP said in an official statement.

Using sophisticated equipment, the gang disabled car security systems and tampered with the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) port - a digital gateway used by legitimate technicians to access a vehicle's electronic systems. This allowed them to break into and start the vehicles within minutes, often stealing them in under seven minutes, the police said.

Based on a tip-off received on May 28, the team intercepted a stolen vehicle in Uttam Nagar and arrested Raman and Sagar, who were inside a car.

Upon checking the engine and chassis numbers, the car was found to have been stolen from the Keshav Puram area.

Inside the vehicle, the police recovered a range of tools and gadgets used in vehicle thefts, including car scanners, key connectors, an ECM device, lock-breaking tools, wire cutters, pliers, duplicate keys and number plates, he said.

The accused confessed to being part of a larger auto-lifting racket that included Raman's son-in-law, Neeraj, who was also arrested based on their disclosure.

Following the trio's interrogation, the police recovered two more stolen cars.

The men revealed that they had stolen between 20 and 25 vehicles over the last 10 months and disclosed that they frequently used one stolen car to trail and steal another vehicle to avoid detection and confuse police tracking.

The vehicles were later sold to illegal receivers based in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

Raman, who allegedly failed to set up a legitimate family business, set up this auto-lifting enterprise instead with his son and son-in-law.

All three arrested are habitual offenders, with Raman previously involved in 18 criminal cases, Sagar in 12, and Neeraj in 14, the police said.