Delhi Police busts auto racket, arrests three

Delhi Police have arrested three men and busted a gang that used to steal batteries from vehicles and then sell it illegally in the grey markets of the Capital. The gang was busted when the exact longitude and latitude measurements of the position of an autorickshaw in which they were fleeing, was used to identify the vehicle with the help of GPS.

The accused have been identified as Dharmender (27), Riyazddin (35) and Shokeen (33), all residents of Shahadra.

Police claimed to have solved at least a dozen cases of car battery thefts following the arrest. According to senior officers, the act came to light on January 28 when one Arvind Kumar from Ghaziabad, UP, reported that he is running a school in Naveen Shahdara, Delhi. He reported that a day before some people sneaked into his school premises and fled with batteries of vehicles along with that of other equipment and some cash.

DCP Shahadra, Nupur Prasad said, "During investigation, CCTV footages of the nearby houses were checked and one auto rickshaw was seen in front of the school at the mentioned time of incident. Some suspects were also seen loading batteries into the vehicle. In order to trace the suspected auto, longitude and latitude of the place, where the auto was last seen, were taken and same were given to DIMTS, IT Park for providing the GPS location of any auto that was spotted at that place at the time of incident."

As per the report of DIMTS, the auto was identified as one with the registration number DL-1RS- 4683, registered in the name of one Rambir. "The owner of the auto was then traced, but when the house was raided, a woman, Rambir's wife said he had died years ago and that after the death of her husband she is now lending the auto on rent for her livelihood. She further stated that one Dharmender drives her auto during night. In a raid on February 1, Dharmender was arrested. After he confessed to thefts, on his instance, his two associates were also arrested," Prasad said.