Delhi Police Crime branch team has unearthed a syndicate stealing luxury cars with the arrest of 13 people involved in the cartel, it said on Monday.
A total of 20 cars were also recovered following the arrest, it added.
According to the police, the gang used to sell the stolen cars on online vehicle selling platforms by preparing forged documents and by opening fake bank accounts.
It came to light while the police were on a hunt for a theft which was traced near Mayur Vihar phase-1, Metro Station, Delhi and the stolen car was recovered from the possession of Anwar Quresh.
The police also found two mobile phones having data of about 40 suspicious vehicles and 20 fake bank accounts including various suspicious WhatsApp Chats indicating the involvement of a well organised syndicate .
During interrogation, he disclosed that along with Shadab, he started sale-purchase of stolen vehicles at the instance of another person, Danish.
The cops revealed that the gang first searched for the similar model and colour of the stolen vehicle that were selling on the portal. They used to obtain the details of the original owner through open source information portals and based on the obtained information, they used to create fake vehicle registration papers with their own photograph.
The syndicate also used to open bank accounts in the name of the original owner by faking documents, as the car seller portals only transfer the selling amount to the owner’s account.
They also prepared fake registration certificates of the vehicle and used to engrave the engine number on the stolen vehicle with that of a genuine vehicle. In this way, the stolen car’s information was completely changed with another genuine car.
After this, one of the gang members used to approach the car selling portals to sell the car.
In this manner, the gang had sold almost 50 cars, the police said.