Sambalpur: Police Thursday busted a bike-lifting racket and arrested four persons in this connection. They also seized 15 motorcycles from their possession.
The main accused was identified as Sudhir Mohapatra (24) alias Rinku.
Police said they had received a number of complaints regarding bike thefts from Dhanupali, Khetrajpur, Ainthapali and Town police station areas. Police had taken it as a challenge and were conducting intensive search operations to nab the accused.
From CCTV footage, police got clues about the involvement of Sudhir in the theft of a motorcycle from outside the office of Sahara India February 19, 2016. He had stolen the bike of the company’s agent Anil Kumar Pandey. On the basis of a complaint lodged over the issue, a team of police led by sub-divisional police officer Gagarin Mohanty and Ainthapali police station officer-in-charge Srimant Barik formed a squad and conducted raids on various places. They arrested Sudhir and seized the stolen bike from Laumunda under Bijepur police station in Bargarh district.
On the basis of the information obtained from Sudhir, police arrested Benudhar Nayak (27) of Chhitkelbandh village in Sonepur district; Dwaru Rana (35) of Chherupali village of Sonepur district and Srikant Badal Das (32) of Kamira village in Boudh district. Fourteen motorcycles were seized from their possession.
Sudhir used to steal the motorcycles from various areas of Sambalpur district using old keys. He had given the bikes to the three persons to sell them.
Benudhar, Dwaru and Srikant used to change the license plates of the motorcycles and sell these to people at a price between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000. They told the customers that they had bought the motorcycles in auction from several police stations.
Police produced the four in court.
A number of cases have been pending against Sudhir at various police stations. He was sent to jail in 2013 on the charge of theft. PNN
