Dimapur, August 21 (MExN): Citizens of Dimapur cannot deny that Dimapur is fast-becoming a big market for stolen vehicles as a huge number of stolen vehicles are recovered in the city regularly. The task of checking the illegal business is an uphill task for the police. It involves a lot of time-consuming procedures and also pressure from various quarters.
Besides, most of the stolen vehicles recovered in Dimapur are reported to have been brought in from outside such as Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Checking out the names of owners of the vehicles residing in other states is an enormous task which involves all police records and documents.
After the crackdown on the racket involving the sale of stolen vehicles in the commercial hub of Nagaland by the Dimapur police a few months ago, the police have so far recovered more than forty stolen vehicles from different areas in the city. Although it remains obvious that the racket has been going on for quite sometime and the problem is far from over, the immediate task before the police is to identify the owners of the vehicles and hand the vehicles over to them.
Additional Superintendent of Dimapur Police VZ Angami, who heads the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to crack the illegal vehicle business, disclosed that most of the stolen vehicles were brought in from faraway places such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. The modus operandi of the racketeers remains uncertain, and the ASP informed that the matter is still under investigation. Angami did not rule out the possibility of the involvement of vehicle owners or car dealers in the illegal business. By reporting their vehicles stolen, a vehicle owner or dealer can claim insurance money against the vehicle from the automobile companies.
Reminding that the stolen car business is a big organised crime, the ASP asserted that many people are involved in it and there are ‘some smart people’ who have direct contacts outside the state and involved in the crime.
For now, the Dimapur police is facing the dual tasks of identifying vehicle owners and also the pressure from various quarters. Angami said the process of identifying vehicle owners is a tough job. The police have to contact various police stations in the country and also contact automobile companies such as Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Tata for verification of vehicles and their owners. This entire process is a time-consuming task. Besides the police have to cope with the pressure from people from various quarters in the state especially from the people from whom stolen vehicles were seized.
“Even now we are under a lot of pressure, people are still running after us,” the ASP confided. However, seeing the success of the Dimapur police in cracking the illegal vehicle business, it is learned that the PHQ, Nagaland has directed the districts’ police to launch crackdowns and take out verifications of documents, engine and chassis numbers.
The crackdown by Dimapur police was initiated a few months ago after the Dimapur police constituted an SIT to pursue the matter. ASP Angami disclosed that the raids were carried out under ‘three categories’: according to records of stolen vehicles registered with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), checking tampered chassis and engine numbers and checking vehicle documents.
There was a strong suspicion about the stolen vehicle business going on in Dimapur for a long time with people opining that the vehicles in Dimapur are all “do number” (number two – slang for stolen). There was also suspicion about the involvement of garage owners, transport officials and other government officials in the racket, although it has yet to be established.
With widespread reports of vehicles being lost in the country, which is an estimated 6 lakhs stolen vehicles, there is legitimate concern that Dimapur is fast becoming a big market for stolen vehicles. Another reason is that, the police in other metros would rarely come to Dimapur to check for stolen vehicles. The answer would lie in the efforts of the Nagaland police personnel.
