Sotiganj of Meerut, which had become notorious as a den of stolen vehicles, is now very peaceful. Even though this gang was stopped by the then SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary, the theft of vehicles still continues unabated. It is true that now the cases of vehicle theft are coming to light, but apart from Ghaziabad and Hapur in UP, vehicles are still being stolen in Mewat, Faridabad, Sonipat and Panipat in Haryana. Apart from this, vehicles are being cut on a small scale in some areas of Delhi also. Whereas, inputs of cutting of vehicles are also being received around Udham Singh Nagar and Haldwani of Uttarakhand.
According to IPS officer Dr. Iraj Raja, who has investigated the case of vehicle cutting in Sotiganj, this black business has not stopped yet. According to SP Jalaun IPS Dr. Raja, apart from the rural areas of Ghaziabad, inputs about cutting of vehicles are being received in Hapur. The police have also raided here several times. However, now vehicles are being scrapped mostly in Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand. According to Meerut Crime Branch officials, a lot of work has been done to break the back of illegal scrap dealers in Uttar Pradesh.
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In this sequence, property worth about Rs 10 billion of 37 businessmen has been confiscated in Meerut alone. Whereas more than 350 scrap dealers have been put behind bars. According to officials, the business of stolen vehicles in Delhi NCR is worth around Rs 2.5 thousand crores. Out of this, business worth one thousand crore was earlier done in Sotiganj alone. Now only 37 junks are left in Sotiganj. Although these scrap dealers have GST. Now there is no buying and selling of stolen vehicles here.
two thousand people used to work
According to officials, about two thousand people used to work in Sotiganj till three years ago. Out of these, around three hundred and fifty scrap dealers were sent to jail, while the rest of the scrap dealers have fled from here and are secretly stealing vehicles at different places and then buying and selling their spare parts. Now let us talk about the entire network of this black business. Actually, it is not only the scrap dealers of Sotiganj who are involved in this business, a huge chain system works in it. At the last end of this are small-time vehicle thieves. They steal vehicles from any state, city or village in the blink of an eye and hide them somewhere nearby.
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Their method of theft is also hi-tech. The lock of a car which takes even the best mechanic half an hour to open, these thieves not only opened in the blink of an eye, but also stole it in the blink of an eye. Such incidents are generally committed by boys aged between 13 to 25 years. After the vehicle is stolen, the second link of the network works. The responsibility of this link is to keep that vehicle away from the reach of the police. Then the third link takes this vehicle to Sotiganj in Meerut and then the parts are separated there. After this, the vehicle parts are delivered to the fifth link of the network i.e. to the shopkeepers sitting in different cities.
Used to steal vehicles on demand
This network belongs to only one scrap dealer, similarly all the scrap dealers had set up their networks here. The scrap dealers had many experienced mechanics and technicians. They used to change the chassis and engine number of a parked vehicle in the blink of an eye. After this, fake registration certificates of these vehicles were also prepared from the computer. Earlier efforts were made to sell the parked vehicle. If this could not be done then the vehicle was sent to the warehouse inside. In the last 8-10 years, even on-demand vehicles had started being stolen. In this, if a customer came and said that he wanted a Scorpio, the scrap dealer would tell this demand to the thieves in his network and in the next three to four days the stolen Scorpio would be made available by changing the engine and chassis number.
