Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 5: Police have busted an inter-State vehicle theft gang and arrested two accused while recovering four stolen vehicles worth around Rs 40 lakh in the Gangyal area of Jammu district.
A police official said the breakthrough was achieved by Police Station Gangyal under South Zone during the investigation of a vehicle theft case registered as FIR No. 13/2026 under Section 303(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Acting on specific inputs, a police team conducted raids at different locations and tracked the accused using technical evidence and CCTV footage, he said.
The main accused was identified as Pawan Kumar of Viran, Tohsham in Bhiwani district of Haryana. His associate was identified as Ramesh Singh of Dinanagar near St. Xavier Convent School in Barnai area of Jammu.
During the operation, police recovered four stolen vehicles, including a Maruti Swift (HR72C 4342), Hyundai i20 (GJ05AB 8470), Chevrolet Beat (HP80 1768) and Mahindra Scorpio (JK02CU 1963), the police official said.
During verification, he said, the police found that the number plates of the vehicles had been changed and the chassis numbers were tampered with to hide their original identity.
He said the investigation revealed that the accused were part of an organised gang involved in stealing vehicles from different States and selling them in northern regions after altering their identification details.
According to him, the main accused is linked to nearly 70 FIRs related to vehicle theft in different States and preliminary investigation suggests that the gang may have stolen around 1,000 vehicles during the past seven to eight years.
The operation was carried out by a team comprising PSI Rahul Kumar, ASI Sanjay Kumar and Selection Grade Constable Manpreet Singh under the supervision of SHO Police Station Gangyal Inspector Sanjeev Chib and overall supervision of SP City South Ajay Sharma.
Meanwhile, further investigation is in progress to identify other members of the gang and recover more stolen vehicles.
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