Car thieves caught

Gangtok, June 13: Sikkim police have busted a racket involved in the theft of vehicles after arresting three persons in the past couple of days.

Anupam Baruah, suspected to be the kingpin of the gang, was picked up from a hideout in Siliguri yesterday and remanded in the custody of Sadar police for five days.

According to sources, as many as 60 vehicles stolen from different parts of India were sold in the state by the gang.

Those who bought the stolen vehicles include politicians, bureaucrats, contractors and even police officers.

According to the police, at least 25 prominent people bought these vehicles. Some of the buyers have already surrendered their vehicles.

Sikkim police stumbled on the racket when Mohan Gurung and Preeti Dewan were trying to sell a Mahindra Scorpio, which had clocked up just 3,000km, for Rs 3 lakh, which is half the original price.

The duo managed to get a new registration number in Sikkim by forging papers in the name of Jyoti Subba, who was unaware that his voter identity card was being misused. Earlier, the MUV had a fake registration number issued from Barrackpore in Bengal’s North 24 Paraganas. Another accused in the case Krishna Subba is yet to be nabbed.

The police are yet to find from where the vehicle was stolen.

While Gurung is an employee of the state welfare department, Preeti Dewan is an insurance agent.The police have not ruled out the involvement of the officials of the motor vehicles division of the state transport department as many of the vehicles have already been given Sikkim registration numbers.