Most key-makers from same UP district: Cops

Afsar Ahmed Sheikh,21,main accused in the latest car theft case cracked last week,also hails from Pratapgarh. “He has over 27 cases against him and is also wanted in car theft cases in Pune,” confirmed Niket Kaushik,Additional Commissioner of Police,Crime Branch.

Wanted in 50 cases and allegedly involved in theft of 280 cars,Mumbai’s biggest known car thief Khurshid Ahmed Nisar,38,arrested recently,also hails from Pratapgarh. Key-makers nabbed by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in the past three years,aged between 13 and 60 years, allegedly acquired their mechanical skills in Pratapgad.

Despite the superior technology used in high-end cars,the alleged key-makers are known to have brought a bunch of shapeless keys that are moulded to replicate the keys of the sophisticated vehicles. The modus operandi in most car-jackings is the same — the cars are stolen from the unreserved parking lots between 2 am and 4 am,their petrol tank or boot lock is broken,a keyhole mould is mapped and the ignition key replicated.

The cars are then parked at the nearest under-construction site,parking spots across malls or public places for a few hours before they are driven beyond city limits during peak traffic hours. The cars are then exchanged between city and state borders before they are transported to destinations such as Kolkata,Nagaland,Jharkand and Rajasthan. The first line of car thieves get anything between Rs 5,000 and 40,000,say police.

Officers visiting Pratapgarh have found it difficult to probe car-jacking cases as residents there have allegedly not been cooperating with them. Not a single receiver of the cars has been traced till date. “In most cases,we have also found that many of them had shifted to Mumbai and worked as car mechanics before they moved to this highly lucrative illegal activity,” said an officer belonging to the unit. He added,“There are rare cases in which they kill someone during an operation. They even travel to Mumbai and live in shanties for a week or less,leaving no traces behind.”

In a rare case being probed by the official,however,a car-jacker named Himanshu Balak Rai,arrested earlier this year,hired a car to be driven to Pune. He allegedly killed the driver,threw his body into the ghats and escaped with the car.