The matter is snowballing into a major embarrassment for the army officers who bought the stolen cars.
A retired colonel from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, has emerged as the leader of a gang of car thieves. The gang specialised in luxury cars, which the colonel sold to army officers and civilians after procuring fake registration papers.
The police arrested one gang member, but the colonel, MP Singh, gave the cops a slip on Saturday.
“We caught Nakad Narayan Singh while he was trying to escape in a stolen car. He had been under surveillance. The colonel and two other gang members are absconding,” said Raghubir Lal, SSP, Ghaziabad.
Singh told the police the gang has stolen over 200 cars. But the police believe the number is more. “If the colonel is arrested, it would make a big difference to the case. He can give us the details of hundreds of thefts,” a police officer said. The colonel has been in the ‘trade’ for 10 years. He was posted in the Army Service Corps and retired two years ago.
The two absconding members are: Raj Kumar, a PWD contractor from Bihar; and Ravi Shankar, a transporter in Jharkhand.
The work of every gang member was cut out. “Kumar and Shankar used to do the stealing, Nakad Narayan would procure fake registration papers from Jharkhand and the colonel would sell the cars,” the officer said. They charged around Rs5 lakh for each luxury car.
The matter is snowballing into a major embarrassment for the army officers who bought the stolen cars. One brigadier, and two serving and one retired colonel have joined the investigation.
The police said Brigadier (retd) Ravinder Singh, a resident of Chandigarh, bought two Honda Cities; Colonel (retd) Basant Rao, a resident of Shahbad, J&K, bought one Honda City; Colonel Uppal, a resident of Secunderabad, bought a Verna and a Honda City, and Colonel Pawan, also a resident of Secunderabad, bought a Honda City.
“There are other names, but we cannot reveal them as the investigation can suffer,” the police officer said.
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