New Delhi, April 25 2010: An Engineer and a Zoology graduate from Manipur were arrested for allegedly being involved in over 200 cases of vehicle theft and 18 high-end cars recovered from them, police said today.

The two have been identified as N Reagan (28) and W Kanan Kumar (37), both hailing from East Imphal, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Vijay Singh said.

The arrests came after police received information that a gang of Manipuri residents were involved in the thefts along with some local criminals who were sending the stolen cars to the North-East through Railway Parcel Service.

Enquiries to Railway Parcel Service revealed that a large number of i10 and Santro cars have been sent to North East particularly Dimapur in Nagaland, Singh said.

On April eight, eight cars were sent to the region through Railway Parcel Service and booking for four more similar cars was also made in the name of Kanan Kumar four days later.

Twelve days later, police managed to arrest Reagan while he was driving a car stolen from Ghaziabad.

His interrogation led to Kumar's arrest.

"They told police that they have sent more than 200 stolen cars to Dimapur and Imphal through Railways," Singh said. Reagan is am Electronic and Telecommunication Engineer while Kanan is a Zoology graduate.

"They used to receive the demand of cars through their associates in Manipur and accordingly they stole the new vehicles" .

They used to break the lock of the car with the help of instruments and were helped by an electrician Sanjay to start the vehicles which could not be run otherwise because of an electronic chip system installed within those cars.

"They used to park the stolen cars after putting fake number plates," Singh said.

The duo told the police that they used to send stolen cars through Railway Parcel Service as no enquiries about the ownership were made by Railways.

The role of Railway officials cannot be ruled out and it is also being probed, Singh said.

It has also been revealed that some of the stolen cars are being used by high profile and influential people.

Delhi Police has taken the help of Manipur Police to apprehend the accused and recover the vehicles, he said.

The Railway authorities have also been requested to make a foolproof system so that no stolen vehicle is transported through its parcel service, he added.

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