Police today claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of thieves involved in stealing Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) from highways and selling them in neighbouring countries.
Five members of the gang, including an auto driver, have been arrested and two stolen SUVs recovered from them in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The robbers operated on highways of Chhattisgarh and neighbouring states and targeted SUVs, Raigarh Superintendent of Police Rahul Bhagat told reporters here, adding, they used to sell stolen vehicles in Nepal and Bhutan.
Those arrested were identified as Mohd Saleem (28) of Raigarh, Sheikh Moinuddin (27), Sheikh Tanveer (26), both from Bargarh (Odisha), Sajid Ali (25) of Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh), and Sugriv Kumar (28) from Jharkhand, he said.
They were apprehended from different places over the past one week. Based on their statements, police recovered two SUVs -- stolen from Kotra Road and Gharghoda in Raigarh last month -- from Asansol in West Bengal, Bhagat added.
During interrogation, the gang members revealed they had been involved in this for the past several years and stolen as many as 18 SUVs of different companies from Raigarh and nearby regions, the SP said.
After stealing the vehicles from Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, and UP, the robbers sold them in Nepal and Bhutan after forging documents, the SP said.
A case has been filed and efforts were on to nab their other associates, he added.
