City police arrested inter-state gang of car lifters

Bangalore, Aug 22 (UNI) The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths of the City Police have busted an inter-state gang of car lifters and recovered 50 cars worth more than Rs 3 crore.

Speaking to newspersons here today City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said that in a major breakthrough five persons who were also wanted by Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra police had been apprehended.

He said Lathief, one of the four arrested was involved in car theft cases reported from Kerala and Karwar in the state. He was earlier convicted for same offense for 3 years by a Kerala court.

However he had once escaped from the Karnataka police, while being brought to a Karwar court in 2003.

The cars were stolen from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala.

The second accused Rajan alias Alex Rajan was allegedly involved in more than 50 cases of car thefts and was evading arrest after non-bailable warrants were issued by both Kerala and Tamil Nadu courts.

In another incident the CCB arrested two different gangs of notorious dacoits and rowdies and cracked 13 cases and recovered gold and silver ornaments, vehicles worth of over Rs 66 lakhs and lethal weapons from the possession of the 14 arrested.

Mr Bidari also announced a prize money of Rs 1 lakh to the police team which busted inter-state car lifters gang and Rs 50,000 each to two other police teams for nabbing the dacoits and rowdies.

UNI MV RS HVB1510