One of the biggest car hacking theft gangs in the city has been busted after the Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested four men who allegedly stole more than 200 cars using a palmtop, sophisticated software, and high-tech sensors.
Police said the accused hacked into cars including Fortuner, Creta, Alcazar, Honda City, and i20. In less than a year, the accused managed to earn more than Rs 50 crore, they said.
The accused are Passang, Sagar, their leader Sablu (24) and associate Asif (22).
To evade police, the accused would travel more than 1,000 km and sell the cars in Northeastern states. The gang also hired auto thieves and receivers in Delhi to steal the cars.
Ravindra Singh Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), said the gang used a software which would intercept the radio signals between the car and an electronic key. After breaking into the system, it decrypted the lock and emulated it to another code to control the car and block the original key.
It took the police more than a year to understand the gang’s ‘pattern’ and nab them.
A team led by Inspector Devender Kumar and ACP Pankaj Arora found that only specific brands and models were being stolen.
Police said as these cars could be traced using GPS, the accused would manipulate it. They later smuggled the vehicles to Moradabad and other places where fake documents were made and delivered them to Siliguri, Guwahati, and Itanagar.
For each car, the accused would earn Rs 8 lakh-15 lakh. Yadav said their aides in the Northeast would even demand specific models, which they stole during the night.
Police said they followed the stolen cars’ trail around Delhi using technical surveillance and found that all of them were soon shifted to UP and Northeast India. The accused were caught with 10 stolen cars, 50 master keys, 10 fake number plates and forged registration certificates.
Police said they are looking for more associates.
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