Delhi Police has arrested three men, who were inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster 'The Fast and the Furious', for allegedly stealing over 40 cars using hi-tech tools, including scanners and GPS jammers.

The accused had stolen the cars from Uttam Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Subash Nagar, Pashim Vihar, Munirka and Dwarka among other places in the national Capital.

The accused have been identified as Manish Rao (42) and Jagdeep Sharma (43), both residents of Uttam Nagar and Aas Mohammad (40), a native of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.     According to Manoj C, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Southwest district, police teams worked relentlessly and gathered all information about the people involved in stealing luxury cars.“With the help of technical surveillance and specific inputs the police team succeeded in apprehending Manish Rao and Jagdeep Sharma when they came to make a deal for a stolen car,” said the DCP. “The Hyundai Creta car with a fake number plate was found stolen from Paschim Vihar area. On a cursory search police teams found various instruments, including sensor kit, magnet, LNT keys and eight remote keys of cars and a lot of other keys for various cars,” said the DCP.“Another accused, Aas Mohammad was also arrested in this case with another stolen Creta car. He is the main supplier of the stolen cars and sells these stolen cars in Rajasthan,” said the DCP.

“During interrogation, it was revealed that Manish, Jagdeep and Aas Mohammad are members of the infamous Ravi Uttam Nagar Gang and were previously involved in more than 10 to 25 cases of auto lifting,” said the DCP. Explaining their modus operandi the DCP said that they kept illegal firearms, while committing the theft in order to protect themselves from the police and the public.

“The accused were inspired by the Hollywood movie 'The Fast & the Furious' and used scanners to unlock the cars within minutes and jammers to disable the GPS if it was installed in the car,” the DCP said. The three accused disclosed that they, along with their leader Ravi, have stolen over 40 cars since April from various areas of the city.

"The accused disclosed that by using a software-based hacking device, they unlocked cars and after formatting the vehicle's software, installed new software. The new keys became ready and they stole the cars within two to three minutes," the DCP said.

After stealing the car, they parked it outside societies, near hospitals and other such places where CCTV cameras were not installed, police said. They used to transport the vehicle to the buyer according to the demand, police said.

Two pistols with five live cartridges, tool kits, hacking devices, 30 keys of cars, tools and seven stolen cars were recovered from their possession, police added.