Jaipur police have arrested a high-tech car thief who used electronic devices to hack into old cars and supply them to smugglers at double the price. The car owners and the police were unable to trace the stolen vehicles. This cunning thief has disappeared with 19 cars, all of them Hyundai Creta models, but one mistake landed him in jail, much to the surprise of many.
Jaipur East DCP Kavendra Sagar revealed that after a surge in vehicle thefts in the area, a special team was formed under the leadership of Adarsh Nagar SHO Subhash Chand and Jawahar Circle SHO Vinod Sankhla. They diligently scanned CCTV footage in the locality, eventually identifying the culprit as Ramprasad Meena, also known as Ramveer.
On June 22, intelligence input placed Ramprasad near GT Mall in Jaipur, likely planning another crime. The special police team arrested him, and during interrogation, he confessed to car theft and surrendered electronic devices and keys to luxury cars.
He also admitted to executing half a dozen vehicle thefts in the last two months. Since 2019, Ramprasad had been stealing bikes but pivoted to high-tech car theft upon his release from Jaipur Central Jail in November 2023. In collaboration with his accomplice, Manish Solanki alias Mansa, he began stealing cars in Jaipur and went on to steal seven from Jaipur and twelve from Gurgaon-Delhi, supplying them to smugglers in Jodhpur, Chittorgarh, Pali, and Jalore.
Describing his high-tech car theft method, Ramprasad explained how he hacked the car’s GPS and manufacturer-installed devices using an electronic gadget before using a radio repeater to hack the keys and disable the locks. To evade FastTag tracking, he had pre-set alternate routes on Google Maps and drove off with the stolen car at the first opportunity.
To ensure no toll payments exposed his trail, he routed through village paths via Google Maps, avoiding toll booths entirely. After stealing cars from Delhi, he reached Jaipur undetected by police.
He would later fit fake number plates before dealing with smugglers. The surprising element is smugglers' preference for the fast-moving Hyundai Creta, making them willing to pay a premium for them.
The electronic device ECM he used for high-tech car thefts is easily obtainable in the market and can even be bought at very low prices online. This Electronic Contact Management device can quickly hack a car when connected to its steering, lock compartment, or connection points. This high-tech method was employed by the thief now enjoying the hospitality of prison walls.
