New Delhi : The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested three alleged members of an organised auto-lifting and vehicle disposal network involved in the theft and resale of cars, recovering five stolen vehicles, 104 forged High Security Registration Plates (HSRPs) and 24 forged Registration Certificates (RCs), officials said on Monday.

According to a press release issued by the Crime Branch, the accused have been identified as Amit Nagar alias Sonu, 35, a resident of Rohini; Atom Jagat Singh, 45, of Imphal East, Manipur; and Potsangbam Mukesh Singh, 28, also from Imphal East.

The Crime Branch said the gang was allegedly operating under the leadership of Nagar and had a network extending across several states. The police said Nagar disclosed during interrogation that he had supplied more than 100 stolen high-end cars to receivers in different states across India.

“In a well-planned operation, the gang leader, Amit Nagar @ Sonu, was arrested following invocation of the MCOCA,” the Crime Branch said in its release.

The investigation began with the scrutiny of vehicle theft cases, CCTV footage and field Intelligence. On May 12, police apprehended Potsangbam Mukesh Singh from Chhatarpur Enclave Phase-II and recovered forged RCs from his possession. A subsequent search of his rented premises led to the recovery of an instrument used for fixing registration plates, 104 forged HSRPs and 22 forged RCs.

At his instance, a stolen Maruti Baleno was recovered from Wazirabad. On May 14, police arrested Atom Jagat Singh and recovered another stolen Maruti Swift from Mukherjee Nagar at his instance.

Amit Nagar was arrested on July 28, following which a stolen Maruti Swift Dzire was recovered, police said. During the investigation, the Crime Branch said it found that Nagar allegedly operated a network through associates who purchased stolen vehicles and arranged their disposal in other states.

On August 13, two more stolen vehicles, a Kia Seltos and a Hyundai Creta, were recovered from Ukhrul district in Manipur, near the Myanmar border, at the instance of Atom Jagat Singh. Police said the vehicles had been stolen in Delhi and were allegedly brought to the border area for disposal and were intended to be sold to underground groups.

The Crime Branch said the alleged syndicate used duplicate keys, electronic equipment and computer-based devices to bypass vehicle security systems and target high-end cars and SUVs. It also allegedly used forged registration documents and number plates to facilitate the resale of stolen vehicles.

The police said the accused operated through associates in states including Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Punjab, Assam and West Bengal. The investigation is continuing to identify other alleged members of the network, trace additional stolen vehicles and establish the complete chain involved in their theft, transportation and disposal.

Thiruvananthapuram: Three months into the V.D. Satheesan government, state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s signature campaign is emerging as one of its biggest public-impact initiatives.

When Chennithala returned to the Home portfolio after a gap of a decade, he did not take long to identify what he believed was the most urgent battle facing Kerala, the state’s rapidly spreading drug menace.

Three months into the Satheesan government, Operation Toofan, conceived and driven by Chennithala, is beginning to provide him with numbers that underline the scale of the campaign.

As of date since the campaign began, 9,085 cases have been registered and 9,795 arrests made so far; the operation has emerged as one of the government’s most visible interventions against the drug network operating across the state.

The latest statewide crackdown on Saturday added 38 more cases and 38 arrests.

The seizures so far include 7,460.567 grams of MDMA, 961.450 kg of ganja and 4,720.909 grams of hashish oil.

But Toofan was conceived as more than a police operation. For several years, Kerala has watched with growing alarm as drug abuse moved from being a problem discussed in police stations to one being confronted inside homes.

News reports of school and college students falling prey to narcotics, youngsters becoming users and, in some cases, turning into carriers for quick money, have made the issue a deeply personal one for thousands of families.

It was against this backdrop that Chennithala chose the drug menace as one of his priorities after taking charge.

Now at 70 years of age, and with the experience of having entered the State Cabinet when he was 28 under the late K. Karunakaran, Chennithala has sought to combine political experience with a campaign designed to take the fight beyond the police force.

He travelled across the state, interacted with people from different walks of life and sought to create a community-based resistance by enrolling them as ‘Toofan Warriors’.

The idea was simple: the fight against drugs cannot be left to the police alone.

The latest figures suggest that the campaign has developed a substantial preventive and awareness component alongside enforcement.

On a single day, Kerala Police conducted 65 awareness classes across the state, taking the cumulative number to 8,994.

As many as 564 counselling sessions have also been conducted, while school and college Protection Groups have organised 6,482 awareness programmes.

The latest round of cases included 10 for possession of small quantities and one involving a medium quantity, besides 27 cases under the NDPS Act and 16 under COTPA.

Police also seized 3.343 kg of ganja from those booked.

For Chennithala, Toofan is consequently becoming more than a government programme.

It is turning into a political statement that the battle against drugs must be fought simultaneously on the streets, in educational institutions and inside homes.

Three months may be too early for victory claims. But if the numbers are any indication, the Home Minister’s first major battle under the Satheesan government has certainly begun to gather momentum.

Kolkata, Aug 16: The police on Sunday arrested three persons, including one Trinamool Congress village panchayat chief, in connection with the murder of a Congress leader, Anisur Rahman, and his 24-year-old son Abu Sufian at Bethuadahari under Nakashipara Police Station in West Bengal’s Nadia district.

The incident had happened late Saturday night. Fatema Bibi, the head of Haranagar village panchayat in Nadia district, was one of the three persons arrested here. Her husband, Jubbar Sheikh, an influential Trinamool leader in the area, has been in judicial custody, and the local Congress leadership accused him of being the mastermind behind the murders of Anisur Rahman and Abu Sufian.

In addition, two of Fatema’s associates, namely Ali Mandal and Mithun Sheikh, have also been arrested. They have already been produced in the court after a medical examination in the morning. The police have sought custody for three of them.

It is learnt that Anisur Rahman and Abu Sufian were returning home in a four-wheeler on Saturday night. At that time, the miscreants blocked their road and allegedly fired several rounds of bullets. The car was forcibly stopped, and the father and son were beaten with sharp weapons. According to sources, both died on the spot due to excessive bleeding.

After receiving information about this incident, the police from the Nakashipara police station reached the spot.

The Congress leadership in the Nadia district has claimed that the country’s oldest national party was fast occupying the principal opposition space in the district after the landslide defeat of the previous ruling party, Trinamool Congress, in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

“Anisur Rahman and his son were playing the key role in regaining our party’s space as the principal opposition force in the state. That is exactly why the father and the son became an eyesore for the local Trinamool Congress leadership, especially Fatema Bibi and his currently jailed husband, who had always been involved with all sorts of notorious and anti-social activities in the district. But no one expected that the sequence of events would take such a nasty turn. It was not just a simple murder. The assassin rather wanted to leave a message through the ghastly manner in which the father and his son were killed,” said a local Congress leader.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee was observing a ‘black day’ throughout the state as a mark of protest against the assassination. Both the current and former state Congress presidents, Suvankar Sarkar and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have demanded a speedy probe in the matter and the strictest punishment for those involved in the murder.