Five men were arrested for allegedly stealing over 1,000 batteries from vehicles, e-rickshaws and trucks in southeast Delhi's Badarpur, police said on Wednesday.
The accused were identified as Sohail (22), Sahne Alam (23), Sahzad (25), Imran (30) and Jameel Ahmed (45), they said.
With their arrest, the police claimed to have worked out 21 cases.
They used to steal 15-20 batteries in a single night and disposed them to scrap dealers at a cost of Rs 500-Rs 2,000 and also maintained a record their theft, Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast), said.
Imran was nabbed from the Mandawali area on March 17 after police identified him standing near a car in one of the CCTV footage, he added.
Imran, along with Sohail, Shane Alam and Sehzad, used to steal batteries from vehicles, bikes, e-rickshaws and tempos and disposed the stolen batteries to scrap dealers of in Trans-Yamuna areas and Western Uttar Pradesh, the DCP said.
Subsequently, his associates Sohail, Shane Alam and Sehzad were arrested, he said.
On their instance, scrap dealer Jameel Ahmed, a resident of Lakshmi Nagar, was arrested, he added.
Seventy-six stolen batteries, the car used during the offence and tools used for opening car bonnets were also recovered from Ahmed, police said.