Suspected mafia installs GPS trackers on raiding vehicles in Gurugram

Two global positioning system (GPS)-enabled tracking devices were spotted in two SUVs belonging to Gurugram Regional Transport Authority (RTA) on Friday, with officials saying on Saturday that the devices were ostensibly fitted by members of illegal mining mafia which keep a tab on the movement of enforcement teams.

A complaint was lodged at Shivaji Nagar police station on Saturday, the officials added.

RTA officials said that for the last one week they had not been able to spot overloaded vehicles carrying illegally mined stones — spotted often on the road stretches towards Sohna and Manesar. This was happening for quite some time, said officials.

RTA secretary had also ordered an internal probe, and while checking vehicles the department teams found two trackers in their vehicles. This, they said, might be the reason why the RTA teams were not able to spot overloaded vehicles, since the mining mafia was using the devices to track the movement of enforcement teams.

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Jitender Gahlawat, RTA secretary who is also the district transport officer, said that they realised something was fishy. “Whenever our teams reached the spot after receiving a tip-off, they would not find any overloaded vehicle plying on the stretch. We came across similar complaints in other districts. When we got out vehicles checked, we found two GPS devices fitted on the diesel tank of the two Bolero cars used by out teams,” he said.

“We also realised that the Charkhi Dadri district had also faced a similar problem. The gadgets also had a sim card for live tracking of vehicle. Police has started an investigation, and we are scanning records of vehicles that were penalised recently,” said Gahlawat.

Police said the role of RTA officials is also under the scanner as the vehicles were parked at the department’s Rajiv Chowk parking lot. The two Boleros were used to conduct raids on mining mafia vehicles and mining spots, said officials. A team of five officials including a driver is sent for a raid, but their vehicles do not have any GPS tracker, said RTA officials.

Varun Dahiya, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that they have formed a team that is checking the records of violators and CCTV footage from near the parking lot to identify the suspects.