The nexus was unearthed by the police with the arrest of an accused named Dharamveer alias Dharma on Friday. The accused revealed that he was part of a gang active in Gurugram that used to steal expensive luxury vehicles at gunpoint.
"Dharamveer revealed during interrogation that he had looted one Toyota Fortuner SUV on March 24 from DLF Alameda City, sector 73, in Gurugram. The accused and his men in a Maruti Omni blocked the way of the SUV. Two of the accused stepped out from the van and accused Bharat Singh, the owner of the SUV who was driving at the time, that he had hit another vehicle from behind. While Singh argued with them, another two gang members came out of the van and held him at gunpoint," Gurugram Police PRO Subhash Bokan said.
The accused overpowered him and forced him into the van. One of the accused drove the SUV and followed. The accused took away his mobile phones, wallet, debit and credit cards with pin numbers and dumped him at an isolated place.
Dharamveer said they had driven the SUV all the way to Dimapur in Nagaland and sold it to a contact who is an illegal dealer of luxury cars.
They targeted luxury vehicles in Gurugram city simply because the owners of these cars are rich and carry large amounts of money, jewellery, expensive phones and have good bank balances from which the accused would withdraw money after taking the pin numbers forcibly. The looted money would enable them to bear the expenses of travelling around 2,500 kms from Gurugram to Dimapur, Bokan said.
The accused further revealed that Dimapur is a hub for disposing stolen vehicles. The mafia involved in this business run organised syndicates there. They used to erase engine and chassis numbers of the vehicles, make forged documents and sell them to buyers in remote areas. The northeastern states being mountainous, the demand for SUVs is very high.
Dharamveer and his gang members are history-sheeters and have been earlier lodged in jails in Gurugram, Sonipat, Jhajjar and Rohtak. They learnt from other inmates about the theft of luxury vehicles that could be easily sold off in Dimapur.
After selling the vehicles, the money was equally distributed between the gang members, Bokan said.
( With inputs from IANS )