NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has busted a gang and nabbed its mastermind who used to register "fake FIRs" in a bid to claim insurance for stolen vehicles while in reality, he had actually sold them.
The accused was identified as Manoj Sharma. With his arrest, the cops were able to recover two tractors from Uttarakhand while a JCB machine was found 1200 Km away from the national capital in Ladakh.
Sharing details, DCP (Outer) Jimmy Chiram said a man lodged a complaint in July alleging the theft of one of his vehicles following which a team of Anti-Auto Theft Squad of the outer district of Delhi Police began investigating the matter.
During the investigation, the cops found out that the complainant Manoj had already registered four other e-FIRs regarding the theft of his four other commercial vehicles.
The police team then meticulously checked CCTV camera footage of the incident in each case and verified other details which further raised their suspicion.
Subsequently, the police then thoroughly questioned the complainant after which he broke down and confessed to lodging fake theft complaints of his vehicles while in reality he had sold them in other states.
Accordingly, the police registered an FIR under relevant sections of law and the accused Manoj was placed under arrest. Later a local Court granted the police his 8 days of custody to unearth the entire syndicate of fraudsters.
On interrogation, the accused revealed that he had bought 3 JCBs and two tractors which he had sold to someone in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
Further on his instance, one tractor was recovered from Manglore (Uttarakhand), another tractor from Dankaur, Gautam Budh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh) and the JCB was recovered from Kargil, Ladakh.
On further interrogation, the accused told the cops that he was facing a financial crisis which led him to commit such crimes to have a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family.
The police suspect the involvement of more people in the incident. "It seems the work of a gang and not just one person," an officer privy to the probe told this newspaper, adding that the investigation is still underway.