Biggest-ever haul of stolen vehicles

Chandigarh, January 10
The UT police today made its largest-ever seizure of stolen vehicles by recovering 58 vehicles (mostly Boleros and SUVs) and bikes of different makes from six members of an inter-state gang.
The value of the stolen vehicles is said to be Rs 4 crore. The police has identified only 12 of the recovered cars stolen from the tricity and districts of Haryana and attempts are on to identify the rest and trace their actual owners.
The gang was active in Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand over the past many years, with many of its members arrested time and again by the police of various states.
One of the gang members, Bhim Pattan, has over 100 cases registered against him and confessed to the police that he used to target the cars while he was to appear in courts in various cases registered against him.
A team headed by DSP Roshan Lal comprising Inspector Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Sub Inspector Rajdeep Singh got the lead on December 24 with the arrest of one of its members, Amit Kumar, a resident of Rohtak. He was arrested in a case of fake number plates and his sustained interrogation led the police to crack the gang.
The police then arrested four more persons, identified as Bhim Pattan, Dharam Pal, Suresh Kumar, alias Nintu, and Sunil Kumar. The police then arrested gang member Harvinder Singh, alias Laddi, a resident of Kaithal district in Haryana, and a stolen Maruti Zen was recovered from their possession. Their accomplices, Rambir of Haryana and Paresh of Nagaland, are absconding.
Certain cars were recovered from certain sarpanches in Haryana who, in their ignorance, had purchased the stolen cars.
Accused Dharam Pal's daughter Olympic player: The daughter of an accused Dharam Pal participated in the handball competition in the Beijing Olympics, while his second daughter is an airhostess. His son is doing civil engineering. He is involved in crime since 1995 and faced more than 97 cases for this. He has his own gang, with whom he committed the crime whenever Bhim and other accused Sunil were in jail. Out of the other accused, Amit Kumar, is a postgraduate.

Modus operandi: They used to steal the vehicles and then punch the new engine number and chassis number on the stolen vehicles. Thereafter, they used to prepare forged registration certificate, insurance certificate or used to get the vehicles registered by preparing forged sale letters. While punching engine number and chassis number on the stolen vehicle, the accused person would always keep in mind the series. Interestingly, the gang members stole the vehicles on the date when they used to appear before courts for hearing of their cases. They used to sell it off to laymen through their middlemen in Nagaland and Nepal. The police has recovered an L-key, ignition sockets, punching kit, fake engine and chassis number plates, maker of fake engine number, chassis number plates, paint spray, blank insurance cover notes and sale letters from their possession.

Recovered vehicles: The recovered vehicles include a number of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-segment cars comprising 21 Boleros, four Tata Trucks, one JCB machine, one Pajero, one Honda Civic, two Toyota Innovas, two Scorpios, two Tata Safaris, one Chevrolet Tavera, six Hyundai Vernas, one Maruti Swift, one Tata Indigo, one Maruti Zen, three Hyundais, two Mahindra Jeep, one Tata Indica, one Hyundai Accent, two Maruti Altos, one Hyundai Getz, one UVA(Chevrolet), one Tata Ace (loading tempo), Kinetic Nova (scooter), Bajaj Pulsar (motorcycle, Kinetic Honda scooter. These vehicles have been recovered from the purchasers of the stolen cars, the police said.

The police is also examining the role of the employees of different registration authorities and some agencies (dealers) into the cases of tampering of chassis and engine numbers.

The registration certificates prepared with forged sale letters, engine and chassis number will be deleted from the record of the registration authorities concerned after proper verification.

Main accused opened Bolero in 90 seconds
The prime accused Bhim Pattan demonstrated to the police the swiftness with which he opened the locks of Bolero jeeps. The entire operation of opening the lock with a scale, an L-key and inserting an ignition socket takes a little over one minute for him. However, cars with central locking and gear locks were not easy to unlock for him and old cars were on his priority list, said the police.
‘Son selected in Delhi Police’
Prime accused Bhim Pattan’s son was selected as a sub-inspector in the Delhi Police recently, but is yet to join, as a writ petition is pending against him owing to his father's criminal past. Pattan's daughter is pursuing LLB at his hometown in Hisar. His second son has cleared state eligibility test for the post of teacher. Bhim Pattan (46) is the kingpin of the vehicle-lifters and is involved in crime since 1991. He has more than 100 cases registered against him so far. He has 70 gang members working under him who are wanted by the police of various states. He used to steal cars while appearing before courts of various states. "Stealing vehicles is a business for him, he has no remorse and still says he will take to the crime again after getting released," said an investigating officer.
Hollywood parallel
Seeing the size of recovery of stolen vehicles, a top cop made a comparison of the catch with a famous Hollywood flick ‘‘Gone in 60 Seconds”, released in 2000, starring Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie. Cage, a master car thief, is forced to return to Los Angeles and steal 50 cars in 72 hours for a British boss