Automobile thefts: India
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Statistics-crime, state-wise
2012: crime, state-wise
IT'S A STEAL The Times of India Feb 04 2015
In 2012, there were about 16 crore vehicles registered in the country while 1.7 lakh got stolen. On an average, there were 98 thefts per one lakh registered vehicles during the same period. By this yardstick, Manipur is the most dangerous state for automobile owners with theft rate more than 300 steals per lakh vehicles. It is followed by Haryana, Bihar, Delhi and Assam, each reporting more than 150 thefts per lakh vehicles. The southern states along with UTs are safest for vehicles owners. The UT of Andaman and Nicobar Island was unique with no vehicle thefts reported
2012-15, crime, state-wise
In UP, a vehicle’s stolen every 15 minutes, December 2, 2017: The Times of India
There seems to be no curb on the activities of automobile thieves in Uttar Pradesh, as the latest figures released by NCRB indicate that state has surpassed the previous record of such thefts. A vehicle was stolen every 15 minutes in UP, marking a sharp 33.9% rise in the past five years. According to NCRB, with 34,480 automobile thefts, UP reported second highest number of such cases in the country in 2016, compared to 22,773 in the state in 2012. In 2015, the 29,846 vehicles thefts were reported while in 2014 it was 29,561. In total, 2, 13,765 vehicles were stolen in the country in 2016. Delhi reported maximum number of vehicle thefts 38,644, Maharashtra reported third highest 22,435 thefts of vehicles followed by Rajasthan 17,544 and Madhya Pradesh 15,878.
Statistics, year-wise
2011-2013
Dec 27 2014
1.65 lakh vehicles stolen in a year
Prafulla Marpakwar
Despite tall claims made by law-enforcement agencies about their success in controlling car thefts, information tabled in the Lok Sabha shows that as many as 1.65 lakh vehicles were stolen in a single year--2013. Uttar Pradesh has achieved the dubious distinction of leading the states with the highest number of vehicle theft cases. Maharashtra comes second.
Lok Sabha member P P Chaudhary had sought information on cases registered during the past three years and whether there was a proposal to create a portal at the national level for better coordination among state governments.
In a written reply, Union minister of state for home H P Chaudhary said a total of 1.51 lakh cases of vehicle thefts were registered in 2011 and the number rose to 1.54 lakh in 2012 and 1.65 lakh in 2013. “We have developed and hosted a website--Vahan Samanavay--for coordination of stolen and received motor vehicles as well inquiries in this regard,“ he said.
Maharashtra transport commissioner Mahesh Zagade expressed concern over the spurt in vehicle theft cases. “It's certainly a matter of concern.We will have to bring in new technology to halt incidents of vehicle theft. We will step up vigil across the state to curb vehicle theft incidents.“
Known for bringing in innovative concepts in administration, Zagade said it needed to be checked whether a radio frequency identification plan can be taken up on a pilot basis for the purpose. “We will have to examine it. If we are able to introduce the radio frequency identification plan and locate the vehicles, it will be a huge achievement.“
A former DGP said it was high time that wireless network was strengthened to locate stolen vehicles. “We will have to build a strong CCTV network across the state. We have toll plazas at several places. At least at these places, there can be a state-of-the-art CCTV network. In my opinion, once a case of vehicle theft is lodged at a police station, a message should be delivered at all toll plazas to locate the vehicle immediately.”
He said in Mumbai too, the proposed CCTV network will help locate stolen vehicles.
Secondly, the former DGP said, in recent past, there was talk of high-security number plates with holograms. “We should develop new technology .Once we feed the number of a stolen vehicle, the vehicle should be detected the moment it passes through a toll naka.“
Car Thefts 2012
Biggest haul by car thieves in
Dwaipayan Ghosh TNN
The city that is obsessed with cars also has the largest number of vehicle thefts. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for 2012 reveals that the total number of vehicles stolen from this city is more than the figure of Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai put together.
There were 13,216 vehicle thefts in the capital last year when 11,457 vehicles were stolen from the five other cities. However, the city cops did a comparatively good job — though far short of the mark — of recovering the vehicles. While 2,738 vehicles were recovered in the capital, the other five cities recovered 3,227.
While 8,171 scooters and bikes were stolen, 4,538 cars and jeeps were taken away. The city also witnessed 20 buses and 71 trucks being stolen by organized gangs. Among the 422 other vehicles stolen were tractors, carts and three-wheelers. On all individual counts, the city witnessed the largest number of thefts. Bangalore (5,090) was a distant second, followed by Mumbai (4,075) and Hyderabad (1,370).
Senior officers said that with the city having the highest density of vehicles, the theft figure was way below world standards. It is indeed a fact that Delhi was the city with the highestregistration of vehicles in the country, both in 2011 and 2012, but Bangalore is showing a similar trend. In 2011, Delhi witnessed 4.76 lakh vehicles being registered while till November 2012, it saw 3.99 lakh registrations that year. On the other hand, Bangalore witnessed a huge jump, from 2.72 lakh vehicle registrations in 2011 to 3.28 lakh till November 2012. Cops claim motor vehicle thefts have come down over the past few years but unless people themselves take some basic security measures and parking issues are addressed, there cannot be any dramatic change. The cars stolen in the capital are often seized in other states and better coordination with the police force of other states can definitely speed up recovery.
The special cell has been given the task of coordination with Jammu and Kashmir while the crime branch will coordinate with police near the Nepal border and in northeastern states. Likewise, the police from other Delhi districts have been assigned the task of coordinating with their counterparts in neighbouring states. Police sources said most of the arrested car lifters revealed that they preferred to sell stolen vehicles in the northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir.
Automobile thefts: Delhi
2014
Jan 04 2015
Dake Kang & Atul Thakur
Most thefts in Shalimar Bagh
Auto thieves in Delhi stole 86 vehicles every day in 2014, around a quarter of them cars. They seem to prefer working weekends to week days and show a preference for specific colours -different for cars and twowheelers -though whether this simply reflects the higher availability of these colours is a moot point. An analysis of automo biles stolen from the capital in 2014, based on FIRs uploaded on ZIPNet (Zonal Integrated Police Network), a website run by the collaborative efforts of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan police, throws up inter esting patterns. The analysis was done by TOI for FIRs registered till November. Of 29,015 FIRs, details were available for about 27,600.
By this count, white seemed to be the most popular colour among car thieves, with grey and silver coming in a close second. Interestingly, for stolen motorcycles, black is the colour of choice, accounting for about one-third of all motorcycles reported stolen last year. It was followed by red and greysilver.
Shalimar Bagh police station reported the most car thefts (158) among the 175 police stations for which data was available. It was followed by Madhu Vihar, Hari Nagar, Paschim Vihar, Govind Puri and Prashant Vihar, each with 140 or more FIRs -roughly, a car stolen every other day. When it comes to motorcycles, the most notorious locality is the area under Bhajan Pura police station, which received 446 FIRs reporting motorcycle theft, or about three bikes every two days. Other PS with averages of over one motorcycle theft a day were Jamia Nagar, Shakarpur and Krishna Nagar.
West and South districts reported over a thousand car thefts each. In two-wheelers, North East and East districts each saw over 3,000 FIRs, the highest. So where is it safest to park your vehicle? Apparently , near railway stations and at the airport. IGI Airport recorded only three car thefts, all railway stations in the city put together a mere four. The safest city district was New Delhi. The largest numbers of FIRs for stolen cars were registered on Saturdays and Sundays and the least on Wednesday. Assuming FIRs are typically recorded up to a day after the actual theft, this could mean that cars are most frequently stolen on Fridays and Saturdays, while Tuesday is a lean day for auto thieves.
The data also shows some unusual vehicles stolen during the year. There were three excavators, one road roller, 107 ambulances among others.
2016-17: 105 car thefts a day
Raj Shekhar, Why 105 car thefts a day is no surprise , The Times of India, April 5, 2017
With vehicle thefts skyrocketing — 105 vehicles are stolen in the capital every day — Delhi Police seems to have realised how.
While busting a gang of car thieves from Sambhal, UP, the cops not only recovered a dozen cars, but also learnt the modus operandi adopted by such syndicates. After retrieving various models, including a Toyota Fortuner, Hyundai Creta and Verna, Honda City and a Maruti Swift, the police got the four arrested suspects to reveal how they bypassed the electronic locks, GPS scanners and electronic ignition mechanism of these vehicles.
Romil Baaniya, DCP (Southeast), disclosed that the four men used videos available on the internet and gadgets bought from e-commerce sites to deceive the engine control module (ECM), which controls the electronics of modern cars. Aamir, Safruddin, Sagir Ahmed and Shoaib Khan was each a specialist on a particular model. Over the years, the gang created access to more than 50 members who could steal cars on demand.
The quartet was arrested after a team led by KP Singh, ACP (Operations), learnt about their plans to deliver a stolen Verna in New Friends Colony. A group headed by Inspector Rajendra Kumar trapped the suspects.
While Aamir specialised in Maruti vehicles and Toyota Innovas and Fortuners, Safruddin was an expert on Hyundai cars. A gang member selected a target in daytime, clicked photographs and sent it to Ahmed, the ringleader, who passed on the information to the respective experts.
Detailing how the thieves made off with Toyota vehicles, Baaniya said that they drove up to a target and began by severing the horn wiring under the bonnet. If the car's indicators started to flash, they retreated to their car and waited till the lights went off. The then broke the rear quarter glass and entered the car. Once inside, they drilled into the ignition point and connected the wires to the alternative ECM they had brought. On a laptop, they scanned the ECM program and bypassed it to turn the ignition on with a screwdriver.
Safruddin confessed that after entering a Hyundai car by breaking its rear glass panel, the ignition point was similarly scanned. Then, using a chip on a duplicate key, the thieves re-programed the key, taking care to install a new glass panel before driving away.
2015
Delhi: Thefts break records
The Times of India, Nov 11 2015
Gone in 13 mins: Vehicle thefts break all records
In 2014, a vehicle was stolen every 24 mins
In 2015, a vehicle is stolen every 13 minutes in Delhi. In 2014, the average interval was 23.6 minutes.Thieves have never been this efficient before, and your car or bike never more unsafe. For comparison, consider the Big Apple. In 1990, a vehicle was stolen in New York City every 3.5 minutes, but new anti-theft technologies and a police crackdown ensured a 95% fall in vehicle thefts by 2013.Now, a vehicle is stolen in NYC once every 72 minutes.
The same anti-theft technologies--engine immobilisers and chip-implanted keys--have been part of most Indian vehicles sold over the past few years, so what is behind the rocketing theft rate?
Is Delhi Police doing its duty?
Investigators accept the situation is grim. Lack of deterrence has emboldened thieves so much that they are using techniques and gadgets to override the modern antitheft systems. Not only do they carry duplicate electronic keys but can also swap out the engine control modules (onboard computers) in fuel-injected vehicles in a few minutes.
Motor vehicle theft makes up a fifth of all IPC crimes reported in Delhi and it is get ting better organised by the day as beat constables seemingly don't have a clue about the gangs.
All that thieves need is a window of 3-4 hours to dispose of a stolen vehicle. Late at night, they can cross over into Haryana or UP from any place in Delhi within about an hour, and then getting the vehicle to a salvage yard in a place like Meerut takes only about an hour more. Using deft hands and machines, the yards take apart a car in no time at all, and the chances of its being traced thereafter are practically nil.
Sources say 5-6 gangs from Soti Ganj in Meerut and adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh prowl around Delhi every night. They operate in twos and threes. While many of the stolen vehicles are dismantled for parts, some are sold in Nepal, the Northeast, and also Bihar and West Bengal.
The outlying police districts that share borders with neighbouring states have higher vehicle theft rates, with the maximum cases reported from east and northeast districts that abut UP .While the theft rate has shot up, the recovery rate remains abysmal. On average, if 100 vehicles are stolen, only eight are found.
In 2014, 22,223 vehicles were stolen in Delhi and 6,019 were cars. At the end of the year, only 2,322 were found. In 2013, the number of stolen vehicles was 26,330. It was 24,231 in 2012, and 26,729 in 2011.
But these are official figures and, sources say , many more cases of vehicle theft might be going unreported.Some are registered under sections of criminal breach of trust, for instance when a vehicle goes missing from a parking lot.
Sources say carjacking of high-end cars and SUVs has also increased in recent months as thieves find it difficult to tinker with them and their ECMs are difficult to swap.
While the vehicle theft rate has skyrocketed, police continue to parrot old reasons to explain it. In its annual review of the crime situation, Delhi Police says vehicles get stolen mainly because people park on the roadside and don't use anti-theft devices.
