Leader of gang of vehicle thieves told crime branch officers that he regularly recruited youngsters from Pratapgadh in UP for the job
The smugglers after their arrest
A probe into a vehicle theft racket busted by the crime branch some time ago has netted the cops the suspected mastermind, Washim Ahmed Shaikh, 29. He is suspected to be the leader of a gang of thieves who hail from Pratapgadh, and recruits youngsters.
Officials have also learnt that the gang used to steal vehicles — trucks/tempos — which were sold to gangs that smuggled liquor ato Gujarat. Shaikh, too, would keep some vehicles and use them to commit dacoities in industrial areas in Thane and Palghar.
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The smugglers after their arrest
The arrests
Shaikh was arrested on September 10 from Nagpada by a team of officers Sunil Bajare, R Sayyed, Dheeraj Koli and Laxmikant Salunke, after the crime branch had earlier arrested a few of his accomplices. From the questioning of Shaikh, the police found that all the youngsters employed by Shaikh were in the 20-30 age group and the gang members, after committing the thefts, used to splurge on dance bars and lead a lavish life. After Shaikh's arrest, the police recovered a truck full of copper — worth Rs 1.81 crore.
Modus operandi
Shaikh has told the police that he has been doing this for over 10 years and in the beginning he used to steal vehicles in Thane and Mumbai. These he used to send to Pratapgadh in Uttar Pradesh, but it was a costly affair as one gang used to steal the vehicles and then several gangs were used to ferry the vehicle to UP, which required payments at each stage. For the past 2-3 years, Shaikh used to steal vehicles and use them to commit dacoities as this was more profitable.
The probe found that Shaikh and his aides were involved in 13 thefts in Mumbai, apart from seven other cases in the crime branch and one dacoity in Virar. The Mumbai police will be writing to the Gujarat police to check the number of cases in which the gang sold vehicles there.
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