‘Oil leak trick’ gang busted in Panchkula
Cases involving Chandigarh businessman, Panchkula woman solved; accused ran into police while planning to target another car
Busting the “oil leak trick” gang with the arrest of four men and two juveniles, the Panchkula police have solved two recent cases reported in the tricity.
The gang used to trick drivers into getting out of their cars to check for oil leaks and fled with their bags and valuables. They were planning to execute a similar crime, when a crime branch team of Panchkula police apprehended them following a tip-off.
The four men — identified as Inder, Surya, Vikas and Shiva — are aged 25, while the two juveniles are around 15 years.
The gang had targeted a woman in Panchkula’s Sector 9 market on December 2 and had later committed a similar crime — fleeing with ₹16.5 lakh from a Mercedes — in Chandigarh on December 19.
“Around 9:30pm on Thursday, the crime branch team received a tip-off about four men standing next to a Toyota Corolla Altis car, bearing a Delhi registration number, near Bandarghati on the Morni road, with a plan to commit a robbery,” said Panchkula deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Kamal Deep Goyal, addressing a press conference on Saturday.
A team of seven officials went to the spot after removing the police light bar from their vehicle. As it was dark, the gang failed to see the cops in the vehicle and apparently waved them to stop in an attempt to rob them. On seeing the cops, they tried to flee, but were apprehended, said the DCP.
Besides seizing the car, the team also recovered two iron bars, one pipe, a torch, three pepper sprays, a two-wheeler with Delhi number and a motorcycle.
CASES SOLVED
The DCP said the accused originally belong to Chennai and had come to the tricity on December 1 from Delhi, where they had been residing at Sangam Vihar. They had been staying in a shanty near the Chandigarh railway station, from where the two juveniles were caught after questioning the four men.
While they had reached here on the Toyota Corolla car and a two-wheeler, they bought a second-hand motorcycle from Chandigarh on December 2, before executing the first crime in the market of Sector 9, Panchkula.
Their first target was Rama Aggarwal, 38, a resident of Sector 9, Panchkula. Surya and a juvenile approached her while she was sitting in her car.
The juvenile allegedly told her that oil was leaking from her car. When she stepped out to check, they sped away with her handbag lying in the car. It contained ₹2,500, a diamond ring, a gold chain and earrings besides two debit cards and important documents.
After committing the crime, the gang reportedly went to Vaishno Devi in Jammu for a week.
They struck again on December 19, said the DCP. This time the target was Sat Paul Bansal, 65, owner of Paul Merchants, a tricity-based currency exchange firm.
Bansal, a resident of Sector 8, Chandigarh, was on his way to his Mohali office in Phase 7 and was sitting in the back while the Mercedes car was being driven by a chauffeur, when the incident occurred near Sector 61.
The gang members on a bike fled with a suitcase containing ₹16.5 lakh after bluffing an oil leak.
“We have recovered ₹16.5 lakh taken away from the Chandigarh businessman. Also, a diamond ring and gold jewellery of the Panchkula woman have been recovered. Her cash and documents are yet to be recovered. In both cases, the juveniles were the ones who bluffed about the oil leaks,” said the DCP.
HISTORY-SHEETERS
Police said the gang kingpin, Inder, has six cases registered against him in different states. The DCP said one case was registered in Panchkula in 2015, and he was arrested in 2016. However, he was acquitted later.
He was again arrested several times in other cases, and was currently absconding. The other cases include three in Himachal Pradesh in 2013, one in Chandigarh of 2016 and one in Delhi in October this year.
Another accused, Vikas, was booked in a similar case in 2014 in Delhi. Officials said the Toyota Corolla car is in the name of some woman in Delhi, while the two-wheeler is in the name of the mother of one of the juveniles.
A case has been registered under Sections 398 (attempt to commit robbery or dacoity when armed with deadly weapon) and 401 (punishment for belonging to gang of thieves) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Chandimandir police station.