Autolifters' gang busted, techie among nine nabbed

New Delhi: Nine suspected auto-lifters, including a civil engineer, who used high-end diagnostic kits and imported key-making machines to break open cars and steal them, have been arrested, the police said. The police claimed to have also recovered more than a dozen vehicles and over hundred smart keys used to break open the locking system.  

One of the gang members even had a fake I-card of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to avoid detection as they drove stolen vehicles across borders.

The gang used sensor based smart keys to gain access to the engine control module (the computer in car). The diagnostic kit recovered from the accused costs around Rs 5 lakh and is used primarily by authorised company owned or company operated service stations for detecting faults reported in expensive cars. The smart keys recovered from the cartel are prepared using advanced and expensive key making machine which can prepare clone keys, the police claimed. 

The 55-year-old civil engineer, who led the gang, has been identified as Subhash Tiwari, a native of UP. His aides were identified as Neeraj Kumar Tiwari (29), Jitender Kumar (37), Naresh Chawla (49), Nasir (26), Shaukat Ali (52), Mohsin (25), Wasim (27), and Aashim (27). According to senior police officer, a special crackdown was planned as car lifting has been on the rise.

As the police probed, it got a tip off on August 20 that two members of a gang of auto lifters, identified as Neeraj and Jitender who were previously involved in several cases, would come near Mahipalpur and flee to Gurugram.

“Following this, the stretch was barricaded and adequate police deployment was ensured. As soon as the identified men arrived in a Honda City car, they were arrested. On their search, six high-end sensor based car keys were recovered. On verification, the Honda City was also found to be stolen from Malviya Nagar,” said DCP (South) Ishwar Singh.

The duo told police that their associate, who was waiting to meet them in Gurugram, was the supplier of technical support to their gang for activating the sensor programming of the keys. The accused persons were immediately taken to Gurugram and their third associate, namely Naresh Chawla, was arrested.