Delhi police arrest auto-driver-turned smuggler who stole 5000 cars in 27 years, committed murders

The 52-year-old Anil had a lavish lifestyle, with properties in Delhi, Mumbai, and the North East, the police told the media.

According to the cops, he is the biggest car thief in the country and has allegedly stolen more than five thousand cars in the last 27 years.

The Special Staff of Central Delhi Police caught him from the Desh Bandhu Gupta Road area after a tip-off.

Anil is currently involved in smuggling arms and was allegedly carrying arms from Uttar Pradesh and supplying them to banned organisations in the North Eastern states.

In the beginning, he used to drive autorickshaws while staying in the Khanpur area of Delhi and started stealing cars after 1995.

After stealing the cars from different parts of the country, he used to send them to Nepal, Jammu and Kashmir, and North Eastern states.

He also killed some taxi drivers during these thefts, police said.

Anil then eventually moved to Assam and started living there. With the wealth acquired through theft, he amassed properties in Delhi, Mumbai, and the North Eastern states.

Enforcement Directorate had also registered a money laundering case against him.

Anil was arrested several times -- once with a Congress MLA in 2015 after which he remained in jail for five years and was released in 2020.

Currently, there are 180 cases registered against him.

Anil has three wives and seven children, according to the police. He had become a government contractor in Assam and was in touch with local leaders there.