A 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing luxury cars on demand from the national capital and supplying the vehicles to UP and Kashmir, police said on Saturday.
The accused was identified as Kunal alias Tanuj, a resident of Sangam Vihar in New Delhi, they said, adding that he called himself ‘Car Raja’.
A resident of Civil Lines, Shwetank Aggarwal, lodged a complaint about the theft of his car from outside his house, police said.
During investigation, police identified the accused and found that he ran an interstate gang to supply vehicles on demand, a senior police officer said.
On Tuesday, police got a tip-off that Kunal would come near the Monastery Market around 6 pm to deliver a stolen car and they laid a trap.
They saw a Creta car coming from Chandgi Ram Akhara and intercepted the vehicle. When asked about the papers of the car, the driver couldn’t produce any, the officer said.
When police records were checked with the number plate, it was revealed that the model and colour of the car was the same as that in their records but the registration number did not tally with its engine and chassis numbers, following which the driver was arrested, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
During interrogation, Kunal disclosed that he has been stealing cars since 2013 and he used to steal luxury cars from Delhi-NCR and supplied them to Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir, police said.
He stole on-demand basis. He used to identify the demanded vehicle model and colour available in the city, police said.
Then, he would steal number plates of vehicles of the same make, colour and model from one area and a car of the same description from another area, the DCP said.
He used to replace the original number plates of the stolen car with stolen number plates and would park the vehicle at a random parking place for a few days to check whether the vehicle was traced by the police through GPS, police said.
Later, Kunal used to call his customer to a different spot to deliver the vehicle. He was previously involved in nine criminal cases. Four cars, keys of different cars, implements used for stealing cars were seized from his possession, police added.