Interstate vehicle lifting gang member arrested after gunfight in Gurugram

The Gurugram police arrested a member of an interstate vehicle lifting gang after a gunfight near Siddhartheshwar Chowk in Sector 9 at 4.30am on Saturday, police said, adding that arms, ammunition and other equipment used to steal cars were recovered from the accused.

The accused was identified as Sonu (single name), 29, of Jakholi in Kaithal.

Police said that the incident took place when the Sector 10 crime branch unit was checking vehicles after placing barricades at the chowk. Police signalled an oncoming Hyundai Creta to stop but the car accelerated and rammed into the barricades in an attempt to flee.

The driver, Sonu, quickly reversed and the car hit head constable Om Prakash, leaving him injured. Sonu stepped out of the vehicle and opened fire at the police team, officers said.

The crime branch team retaliated and fired two rounds, forcing Sonu to flee, police said. The team chased him and arrested him, said Varun Kumar Dahiya, assistant commissioner of police (crime).

Police searched the Creta and found a pistol, two live cartridges, six engine control modules (ECMs), a key making device, a car programming device, a jammer used for deactivating anti-theft alarms installed in cars, a chipset, ECM motherboard, 23 car keys, three bent metal scales, a screwdriver, eight special keys to open lug nuts, a device to smash window glasses, and a phone, among other times.

“Sonu and his gang members had stolen the Creta from Safdarjung Enclave in Delhi in October. Sonu has told us that his gang had stolen 14 vehicles from Gurugram and 10 from Delhi since July,” Dahiya said.

The gang has at least five other members and each has an assigned role in their operation to steal and dispose of cars, said police. They are all on the run.

“Sonu had met the other gang members in Tihar jail, where they were lodged for car thefts. He came out nine months ago. After the others came out on bail, they formed the gang and started lifting cars from various locations across the National Capital Region, selling them in distant states or getting them dismantled at cheap rates,” the ACP said.