3 of interstate car thieves’ gang land in Delhi Police net

The Delhi Police have busted an interstate gang of tech-savvy vehicle thieves who allegedly used electronic devices to clone car keys and steal vehicles, an official said on Sunday.

Police recovered three stolen cars and arrested as many men, including the gang leader. The accused have been identified as Sonu and Ashish, both from Uttar Pradesh, and Sandeep from Haryana.

Police have identified Sonu as the gang leader. The gang targeted vehicles in Delhi and later disposed of them in states far from the Delhi-NCR region to evade detection, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police tracked the gang and apprehended Sonu and Sandeep on December 6, recovering a stolen car registered in Delhi from their possession.

The vehicle had been reported stolen in an e-FIR registered at Mangolpuri police station, police said.

"During police remand, Sandeep led the team to Sector 23 in Sonipat, from where another stolen car was recovered. This vehicle was found to be stolen in a separate e-FIR registered at Bawana," said the police officer.

Further investigation led to the arrest of Ashish on December 8. On his disclosure, police recovered an SUV stolen from Sonipat.

Police also seized an electronic tablet used for programming duplicate car keys through the on-board diagnostic (OBD) port, and several duplicate keys of various car brands were also recovered.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they used an electronic key-cloning tablet to connect to the vehicle's OBD port located under the dashboard and program blank keys by copying the vehicle's security code.

The stolen vehicles were kept parked in the

Delhi-NCR area for one to two weeks before selling them outside the region, police said.