-SATISH HANDA
Special Task Force (STF) of Haryana police busted a racket involved in stolen hundreds of luxury cars and selling these vehicles after registration on the basis of fake engine and chassis numbers on vehicle by SDM office Meham in Rohtak district. STF submitted 500 page charge sheet to the state government for action against all accused involved in this scam. The racket included its kingpin Amit a resident of ward 5, Meham, Ramesh and Jasmeet alias Kala both residents of village Sisar Khas, Praveen and Dharambir both residents of Charkhi Dadri all of them prepared a gang to lift and sell stolen luxury vehicles with fake registration numbers prepared by the staff of SDM office Meham in Rohtak district comprising of computer operator Sombeer, office clerk Anil Kumar, Typists Ramesh Bamal and Dharambir. The scandal exposed when STF arrested Praveen with a stolen car in the month June this year. The prime accused Amit too was arrested earlier while lifting a car in 2011
Both Amit and Ramesh had surrendered to police along with 17 stolen vehicles when STF started search for their arrest on the direction of arrested Praveen during police remand. According to STE information, 35 stolen cars having fake registration numbers has been recovered from arrested accused so far. During investigation, they disclosed the names of staff of SDM office at Meham involved in fake registrations of stolen vehicles. STF investigations revealed that SDM office staff in a conspiracy destroyed large number of old files of vehicles when there was no online portal system for registration of vehicles and started allotment of these old registration numbers uploading on the computer system. Investigation also revealed that SDM office staff members had prepared nearly 250 to 300 fake registration documents in advance and used to change the particulars as regard vehicle’s brand, colour of the vehicle, engine and chasis numbers within an hour or so before selling a vehicle.
STF investigation further revealed that the racket had three agents in western U.P Shareek, Hafeez and Nafeez involved in lifting as well as finding customers for stolen vehicles with new registration number in the area. Similarly, the sale of stolen vehicles was being looked after by another agent Kikheto Achumi alias Ketu at Dimapur in Nagaland. STF officers told that a police team has been sent to Meerut in U.P for the arrest of three agents in Western U.P.
