The arrested car thieves at Bhangagarh police station. Picture by Eastern Projections

Oct. 12: City police arrested three members a gang of auto lifters, including the kingpin, from Birubari and Bhangagarh last evening.

An electrically-operated machine that can make duplicate keys in a few minutes, a large number of duplicate keys, several fake number plates and some incriminating documents were seized by the police from their rented house at Birubari, which was being used by the members of the gang as their hideout.

The accused were identified as Manoj Kumar Gupta, the kingpin, and Dharmesh Yadav and Ganesh Rai, drivers. All three persons are from Bihar.

Gupta, the expert who churns out duplicate keys in minutes, was arrested from Birubari and the other two from Bhangagarh.

“There were two to three more members of this gang who are absconding. A hunt is on to track them down. This gang had inter-state links through which it sold vehicles stolen from the city in neighbouring states like Nagaland and Manipur,” a city police officer said.

They procured plain keys from Dimapur and Siliguri and then gave them shape exactly like the original with the help of the machine.

On the gang’s modus operandi, the officer said Dharmesh and Ganesh sought jobs as drivers of affluent families. “After they took up the job, they started looking for a chance like the owner going to a party or to attend conference. When they got such an opportunity, the driver gave the original key to Gupta who immediately made a duplicate before returning the original to the driver. After that their job became easy and one member of the group would steal the car when the owner and the driver were away so that the owner did not suspect his driver,” he said.

They had stolen over 30 vehicles from different parts of the city like Fancy Bazar, Athgaon, Machkhowa, Kedar Road and Tarun Nagar.

During interrogation, Gupta said he had procured the machine from New Delhi.

“The members of the gang also used to scout the city for potential targets. Once they spotted an unguarded vehicle, they tore away the petrol tank lid and used it to make a set of duplicate keys,” the officer said.

He said luck ran out on them when Dharmesh stole a Ford Fusion of his latest employer Rajesh G. Jani of Tarun Nagar on September 30.

“When Jani lodged a police complaint regarding the theft, we started our investigation and also probed if Dharmesh could have played a role in the theft. Then we decided to interrogate him. Though he initially denied his involvement, later he broke down and spilled the beans yesterday,” the officer said.

On basis of the confession made by Dharmesh, the two others were arrested and the machine and duplicate keys seized. A case was registered at Bhangagarh police station.