Bargarh police busted the car lifting racket

Acting on the clue received from the Gujarat driver murder case occurred recently, the Police of Baragh district have cracked down a racket of four-wheelers lifter racket on Friday that was active in Bargarh area over the past few years. Police have managed to recover more than 14 vehicles including a passenger bus. Police unearthed the racket while searching the vehicle that was stolen from Gujarat. Police suspected one businessman of Bargarh town as the kingpin of the racket. However Bargarh police refused to divulge any thing detail about the case as investigation is and expected more recovery of the stolen vehicles in a day or two.

“The racket is unearthed while we made search of the vehicle that was stolen from Gujarat after the killing of the vehicle driver. Gujarat police suspected the motive behind the killing of driver was to lift the vehicle. Getting information from Nausari’s Chikhili police station of Gujarat where the dead body was recovered. The accused persons had used ATM and cell of the driver after throwing his body which helped to trace the accused persons. Our suspects centered on a lady person of Sakhipara area of Sambalpur who revealed much information on the case during her interrogation. Gujarat police took her in remand for further investigation.” inspector (crime) of Sambalpur Sanjib Satpathy said.

Sources said, police suspected one business man of Bargarh as the kingpin of the entire racket but failed to arrest as he managed to abscond before could reach him. Police have already detained 6 persons including few businessmen of Bargarh, Attabira and Barpali town who were found possessing the stolen vehicles that belong to mainly Maharastra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Police also found that the engine number and chassis number of the vehicles have been either changed or tempered

“Since the engine number and chassis numbers of the vehicles have been tampered by the accused at present it is difficult to ascertain the origin of the vehicle still from the primary investigation it appears to be from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharastra states. Investigation is on to nab the main culprit. We expect more recovery of stolen vehicle once we catch hold the kingpin of the racket. However at present we do not want to disclose any thing on the racket” the DIG (NR) Sambalpur RP Koche said congratulating the officials of his department who cracked down the racket.

On the other hand sources revealed that the modus-operandi of the gang was to lift the vehicle on the way after killing the driver and throwing the body in an unnoticed place. By that the lifters were getting enough time to cross the state border as it takes few days for the police to identify the dead body of the driver even it recovers immediately. With the help of RTO officials and agents they prepare duplicate registration certificate of the vehicle was prepared by tempering and changing engine number, chassis number and registration number. They sell the vehicle to an influential person in a comparatively cheaper price. Most important part of the racket was utilizing service of female to build trust in the mind of travel agency. While going to book vehicle they take female member with them posing them wife and husband to avoid doubt in the mind of the travel agent. Once they get the vehicle the prime aim was to kill the driver and take the vehicle. “After interrogation of the lady that arrested recently we came to know how the gang was operating cunningly utilizing the female in this nefarious trade”, police inspector Satpathy said.