Most wanted car jacker Bakkarwala arrested

Delhi’s most wanted car jacker, Manoj Bakkarwala, was arrested by the Special Cell. The police have claimed that he is involved in more than 500 car thefts in the past 11 years. His four associates, including a Punjab Police constable, were also arrested.

“We got information that Bakkarwala was disposing off stolen cars in Chandigarh and identified a hideout of one of the receivers. On July 14, police spotted a stolen car driven by the receiver. They were arrested from Najafgarh area,” the police said. The Commissioner of Delhi Police, Y S Dadwal said with Bakkarwala’s arrest, they have now arrested 19 members of the gang. “He is the most wanted carjacker sought by Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana Police. A reward of 50,000 was on him.” One of Bakkarwala’s associates, Parveen, 24, was also arrested.

Bakkarwala’s arrest followed the arrest of three persons — Sarwan Singh, 34, the Punjab Police constable, Prabhsharan Singh, 31, and Gurcharan Preet Singh, 23 — from Chandigarh on July 13. Two sophisticated English pistols were recovered from Bakkarwala’s possession. The police said Bakkarwala is an expert in driving cars and preferred to steal late at night or early in the morning, preferably on wide roads with no traffic signals so that he could escape easily.
“He has a lavish lifestyle and has a girlfriend in Haryana who is doing MBA,” the police said. “Manoj has been bearing all her expenses, including tuition fees, for the some time now.” Dadwal added that Bakkarwala also used to change his accomplices from time to time and constantly changed his hide-outs. The carjacker, who allegedly started his criminal life in 1998 along with one Makhan, was first arrested in 1998 and then in 2003. He continued with his criminal activities once he was out on bail. In 2007, he was arrested by the Gurgaon police but escaped in July 2008 with the help of Parveen.

On May 8 this year, he managed to give the slip to the South Delhi police in Kanjhawala area when a police party spotted him in an Endeavour car. He was also hurt in a brief encounter. Dadwal said after escaping from Kanjhawala, Bakkarwala went to Chandigarh. The police said Prabhsharan is unemployed and currently pursuing LLB while Parveen, who allegedly sold the stolen vehicles to Sarwan Singh, is a school drop-out. Delhi Police has also invoked Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Bakkarwala.

Manoj Bakkarwala is a B.C. of Police Station Nangloi and is involved in more than 200 cases of carjacking/auto-lifting. Earlier, on two occasions, he had escaped from the police custody, once from Gurgaon Police and second time from the custody of Special Cell, Delhi Police.

He is a very desperate criminal and has many accomplices in different parts of NCR who undertake sensational cases of carjacking. He has an expertise in driving and prefers to commit crime late at night, preferably on wide roads having no traffic signals so that after committing the crime he could easily escape. He is fond of lavish lifestyle and luxurious vehicles. He used to stay in the rented houses in the different cities like Dehradoon, Karnal, Haridwar etc. To evade the police net, he keeps changing his accomplices from time to time.