Delhi Police has arrested three members of a family that formed an automobile lifting syndicate in the Capital. They had allegedly stolen over two dozen vehicles in recent months across Delhi and the neighbouring States before selling them in Meerut, the police said on Saturday.

The accused have been identified as Raman, 56, his son Sagar, 31, and his son-in-law Neeraj, 29. The trio was a close-knit group comprising family members, a strategy devised by Raman, the kingpin, to minimise the risk of betrayal and leaks of operational information to authorities, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.

“The gang allegedly specialised in stealing high-end vehicles, most of which were parked near gyms and parks in residential colonies,” he said.

Under seven minutes

The gang used sophisticated equipment in disabling car security systems and tampered with the onboard diagnostics (OBD) port — a digital gateway used by legitimate technicians to access a vehicle’s electronic systems. This technique allowed them to break into and start the vehicles within minutes, often stealing them in under seven minutes, the police said.

Based on a tip-off received on May 28, the team intercepted a stolen vehicle in Uttam Nagar and arrested Raman and Sagar. The accused confessed to being part of a larger auto-lifting racket that included Raman’s son-in-law Neeraj, who was also arrested based on their disclosure.

Following the trio’s interrogation, the police recovered two more stolen cars. They revealed that they had stolen between 20 and 25 vehicles over the last 10 months, the police said.