29-year-old man arrested in Vivek Vihar encounter

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A 29-year-old man, carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh in connection with his alleged involvement in the Vivek Vihar encounter, has been arrested, police said yesterday. The accused, identified as Kalia, is a resident of northeast Delhi's Nand nagri and is involved in 17 cases of motor vehicle theft, they said. On June 5, four men had opened fire on police party and one of the gang member Noor Mohammad had died in retaliatory firing. During the police encounter, one accused namely Ravi Kuldeep was arrested by the police team on the spot, Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime), said.

During his sustained interrogation, accused Kuldeep disclosed the identity of person driving the alleged Brezza car as Kalia who along with another associate had fled, he said Acring on a tip-off, on August 3 police arrested Kalia near a cinema hall in Nand Nagri after a brief scuffle, he added. During interrogation, the accused disclosed that since 2012 he along with his associates have been stealing luxurious cars from Delhi and NCR areas and disposed off the stolen vehicles at Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and North East, Rajan said. They used to break the window of the target car and then used a drill machine to unlock the steering wheel.

The accused also knew how to switch off the GPS system in case one was installed in the car, the officer added. Kalia has disposed-off around 100 stolen vehicles in the last one year. On his instance, a stolen Breeza Car involved in the Vivek Vihar encounter case was also recovered.

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