KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 6 (MExN): A gang of five persons were arrested on September 5 for attempting to sell a stolen car online. Along with the arrest, two stolen cars were also recovered.
A press release from the Sr. Superintendent of Police, Kohima informed that the arrest and recovery was the result of an orchestrated operation conducted by personnel of North Police Station.
As per the release, the gang tried to sell a stolen car through a social media buy-sell group. Based on the information, police decoys posing as prospective buyers were deployed to make contact with the sellers. After gaining the trust of the sellers over a period of several days, the decoys made a deal to purchase the car. The sellers were asked to bring the vehicle to Piphema to finalise the deal where they were arrested on September 5.
As asked, the release said that 3 persons arrived in a black Santro Zing bearing registration number NL07 3295 to meet with the decoy buyers at Piphema. “After making sure that it was safe, they made a call and two gang members arrived at the spot with the stolen vehicle Maruti Swift Dzire (silver color),” the release added. Police officers disguised as the prospective buyers took the Swift Dzire for test drive with one of the gang members in tow, who was subdued and arrested. The other 4 were also surrounded and arrested soon after, the release said.
It was later ascertained that the Maruti Swift Dzire was registered as stolen at Hatigaon Police Station, Guwahati in 2015 with its original registration number as AS 01GC 0634. The registration number of the black Santro Zing was also found to have been allotted to another vehicle – a Hyundai Getz, the release stated.
The 5 arrested were identified as Kitolu Achumi (20 years), Hotokhu Assumi (27 years), Bokugha Zhimo (21 years), Anam Ali (23 years) and Thomas Singh (23 years), all residents of Dimapur. The latter two hail from Hojai, Assam and Imphal, Manipur, respectively.
