Those nabbed have been identified as Mandip Kumar alias Mintu, Jagdish Kumar alias Lovely, Umesh Kumar alias Lovely, Varinder Singh alias Harbans Singh, Jugal Kishore (all residents of Morinda), Panchkula resident and gang's kingpin Mukesh Kumar Verma and Meerut-based Vinod Kumar. The police said these seven persons were arrested on Tuesday on a tip-off, while eighth member of the gang, Jatinder Singh alias Savita, was still at large.

The police have recovered nine Maruti 800 cars, two Maruti Zens, one Tata Sumo, three scooters, two tippers, a .12 bore single barrel gun, a .315 bore pistol and a few cartridges. They also recovered six fake stamps and three driving licences from them.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police Ranbir Singh Khatra, they had lifted these vehicles from Naina Devi (Himachal Pradesh), Chandigarh and S.A.S. Nagar.

Explaining their modus operandi, Khatra said that the thieves would rent big houses in Chandigarh and S.A.S. Nagar. Claiming themselves to be income-tax payees (again "fake" documents), they would prepare bogus papers by submitting fake names and addresses from finance companies such as Chandigarh-based Twenty Century Finance Company, Escort Finance Company and Bank of America Finance Company and Manimajra-based Swami Finance Company.

On the basis of these papers, they would procure new cars on an initial payment of about a lakh rupees and could not be located thereafter. They used mobile phones and telephones, which they had installed under fake names at their residences.

He added that these thieves used to make fake registration cards and sell them. They also used to prepare and sell counterfeit driving licences. The police added that the arrested were being interrogated and they hoped to recover more vehicles from them.