Guwahati, Friday, November 4, 2005
CITY
City becoming a major hub for stolen car trade
By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 3 Guwahati is fast becoming a major hub of a countrywide racket in stolen cars. The largest city in the North East has become a centre for a flourishing trade in stolen cars, top security sources disclosed here today. They expressed concern that the state governments in the region are doing little to check the menace. It could have a bearing on the security scenario as well with militants taking to using car bombs to create terror.
According to the sources, the hill states like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram are being flooded with cars that have been stolen from outside the North East. Most of the cars are stolen from the national capital New Delhi but there are also instances where vehicles have been stolen from cities in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal and resold to customers in the region with or without their knowing that it is stolen.
The sources disclosed that there are at least half-a-dozen major gangs that are involved in the flourishing racket that generate tens of crores of rupees annually. The number of stolen cars being sold in the region every year runs into hundreds. Apart from the well-knit major gangs, there are also instances of smaller gangs and even individuals who are engaged in the trade. Guwahati is where most of the stolen vehicles land up initially before being sold to customers who flock here from other parts of the region, they informed.
The modus operandi of the racketeers is to break into parked cars in parking lots, private garages and even on the roadsides and make off with it before the police could be alerted. The trick is to drive the stolen car out of the concerned city as soon as possible. Once on the highway or in some other state, the stolen vehicle becomes very difficult to track down.
Not that the car lifters give much scope for that. Almost always, the original number plates of the stolen car is replaced with false registration plates. Cars are even repainted in workshops known to gang members before they are despatched to the North East. The better-organised gangs are resourceful enough to alter even the engine and chassis numbers on the vehicles.
The sources said that once the stolen vehicles reach the North East, procuring documents to give it a legal stamp is cakewalk. There is no proper verification done by the district transport authorities before new registration numbers are allotted to such vehicles, the sources complained, hinting that the smooth operations of the gangs are also facilitated by paying regular bribes to transport officials.
It is an area that the sources want the government to give attention to. They say that with car bombings becoming commonplace in the rest of the world, it is just a matter of time that militants or terrorist groups in the region adopt the same tactics. Stolen cars are the best tools for carrying out such attacks because the owners of such vehicles remain mostly untraceable.
The racket has become so well entrenched in some of the hill states that cars stolen in Assam, particularly Guwahati, also land up in these states. The stolen vehicles are mostly bought and driven in the interior areas where there are little or no checks, they said. With the demand for stolen cars on the rise, cars are also being stolen in larger numbers in Guwahati. After being driven out of the city straightaway or being hidden for a few weeks, the cars are given a new identity and sold off.
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