Panchkula cops bust gang of car battery thieves, nail 7

Panchkula, January 23

With the arrest of seven persons, the Sector 26 crime branch of the local police claims to have busted a gang involved in stealing batteries from parked vehicles outside houses. Of the seven, two were junk dealers.

The suspects have been identified as Sahib Kumar, a native of Champaran in Bihar who resides in Mauli Jagran, Rohit Jaswal and Satnam Singh, residents of Sector 4, Panchkula, Shivam, alias Monu, a resident of Baltana, Madan Shah, a native of Madhuban in Bihar who resides at Abheypur in Sector 4, and Deepak and Mohit, residents of Baltana. The police said the suspects were wanted in connection with separate (seven) theft cases reported from various police stations across the city.

The police said 64 stolen batteries had been recovered so far. The gang members, all youngsters, were active in the city for the past many days.

On complaints from residents, DCP Mohit Handa had appointed a team of the crime branch, Sector 26, to probe the matter and nab the suspects.

Inspector Aman Kumar, in-charge of the crime branch, Sector 26, said the police had received multiple reports of car batteries being stolen from various parts of the city.

“CCTV footage from the areas was scanned during the investigation and we finally got a breakthrough with the arrest of three suspects, who led us to the other suspects in the case. The suspects used to steal batteries of cars parked outside houses in the same lane at night and sell these to junk dealers,” he said.

Recent cases

• On January 2, Satish Sharma of Sector 12 had submitted a complaint to the Sector 5 police station that unidentified persons stole the battery from his Maruti car.
• On November 18 last year, Sunil Bhardwaj of Sector 15 had lodged a complaint with the Sector 14 police station that some identified miscreants stole the battery from his Alto car.