NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai Crime branch unit-1 team has busted an inter-state gang of vehicle thieves, including one of the two masterminds, who used a hi-tech gadget to hack the vehicles’ engine module system.
The police recovered 18 LMVs worth Rs 1.47 crore by arresting seven gang members from Ghatkopar, Surat in Gujarat, and Murshidabad, Kolkata and Asansol in Bengal.
The arrested kingpin, Mohd Habibulla (40), a mechanic, stayed on rent in Ulwe and his aide Manoj Gupta (34) resided in Kalyan. They were arrested from Ulwe in July. Both hail from UP. The wanted mastermind Raje Soni, who lives in Chembur, had arranged the rental flat in Ulwe for Habibulla and Gupta by telling the flat owner that they were high-rank officials at JNPT, said senior inspector Sunil Shinde.
Inspector Shinde said, “Habibulla first broke a vehicle’s window pane to enter the car and disconnected the DCM (direct communication module) socket by opening the tool box inside the car. Then, he would open the bonnet and disconnect the siren. He entered the vehicle and again connected the DCM circuit. He used external wire to connect battery and fuse box. Thereafter, he placed a hi-tech gadget on the ignition button and scanned the engine control module unit for decoding the vehicle key’s security code. Then, using duplicate key, he starts the vehicle. He took only three minutes to drive away with a vehicle.”
He said, “After arresting Habibulla and Gupta, we recovered seven stolen cars worth Rs 64.50 lakh. They revealed the names and locations of their aides who replaced the engine and chassis numbers of stolen vehicles with those of scrapped vehicles. They made fake documents and sold them as second-hand vehicles. They led us to scrap dealers Sumit Jalan (40) and Rashid Ali (44), who were arrested from Kolkata in September. The other aides, N Ansari (44) and Manish Chovatiya (47), were arrested from Surat and Bengal, as they were receivers of stolen vehicles and printed discarded chassis and engine numbers while Jamaluddin Saha (47) was nabbed from Ghatkopar. From them, we recovered 11 of the 18 cars worth Rs 82 lakh.”
