BHOPAL: The Hanumanganj police arrested seven persons who were involved in the theft of 26 vehicles. The cops have recovered 26 two-wheelers from them. One of the accused was involved in an armed robbery when he stabbed a trader. When the police arrested him, they found a dozen master keys with him. When quizzed, he revealed that the keys were used to unlock bikes parked in markets.
The accused had also dismantled the vehicles at a scrap dealer’s shop. It was done to dodge the arrest. They would show these as vehicles under repair. The interstate gang would steal vehicles and would also sell the parts. Among those arrested were three scrap-dealers and four thieves. The scrap-dealers would dismantle the stolen vehicles and sell the auto parts.
SHO Hanumanganj Mahendra Singh Thakur said the accused, Owais ala Umar Ali, Anas Khan, Irfan Hussain and Salman Khan, were arrested from the Arif Nagar area. They had recently stabbed a trader and tried to rob him. They were identified through CCTV footage and, when a team of policemen swooped down on one of them, he was found with the keys.
Later, it was revealed that they would target vehicles parked in markets. They would apply keys randomly to parked vehicles and, whenever they found it worked, they would make off with the vehicle. Thakur said the accused, Parvez Hassan, Mehmood and Sohail Khan, were scrap-dealers.
