MEERUT: Junk dealers at Sotiganj, the infamous car-breaking and stolen auto-parts market which was shut last year following a massive crackdown, allegedly man-handled a crime branch team of Delhi police on Saturday evening, when it raided a house in the area to arrest an alleged vehicle-lifter.
According to a senior police officer, the crime branch team had arrived in search of an expensive bike that was stolen from Delhi a year ago.
As the team raided a house in Sotiganj and took a junk dealer in custody, locals protested against them, allegedly man-handling the team's personnel. The junk dealer was subsequently released.
The team somehow managed to escape the area and later left for Delhi, sources said.
SP (city), Piyush Kumar Singh, said that the Delhi police crime branch team "was surrounded by locals when they were investigating the bike theft matter and raiding houses of a few suspects."
Notably, UP police had conducted a massive crackdown on the illegal auto spare-parts market and repeatedly raided shops and godowns last year. TOI had published a series of reports about the police's clampdown during which cops had recovered "hundreds of two-and four-wheeler engines apart from other spare parts of vehicles stolen from Delhi-NCR".
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