New Delhi: The kingpin of the car thief gang who had stolen 5000 vehicles from various parts of the country since 1998, has been arrested in New Delhi, police said on Monday.
Delhi Police today confirmed the arrest of India’s biggest car thief, Anil Chauhan, accused of stealing more than five thousand cars from different parts of the country.
After a tip-off, the Special Staff of Central Delhi Police nabbed him from the Desh Bandhu Gupta Road area on August 23.
According to the police, the 52-year-old is currently involved in smuggling arms. He was allegedly carrying arms from Uttar Pradesh and supplying them to banned organisations in the northeastern states.
Chauhan used to drive autorickshaws while staying in the Khanpur area of Delhi and started stealing cars after 1995. The stolen cars were sold to Nepal, Jammu and Kashmir, and the northeastern states. He is alleged to have killed some taxi drivers during his thefts.
He eventually moved to Tezpur, Assam and started living there. With his ill-gotten wealth, Chauhan led a lavish lifestyle and amassed properties in Delhi, Mumbai, and other states in the northeast.
He had become a government contractor in Assam and was in touch with local leaders there. Police have recovered six pistols and seven cartridges from him. Anil has three wives and seven children, the police added.
Chauhan has been arrested several times — once with a Congress MLA in 2015, after which he remained in jail for five years and was released in 2020. H has about 180 cases registered against him.
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