Bike-lifting gang busted, 13 held

Rajashree DashJajpur, Nov 14: Jajpur Road police on Friday busted an inter -district motorcycle lifting racket by arresting four of its members and recovered 13 stolen motor bikes from their possession.Besides the gang members, police also arrested 9 receivers of stolen vehicles.All arrested persons were forwarded to the court and later they were remanded to jail custody after their bail pleas were rejected.According to the police, the arrested have been identified as kingpin Prakash Kumar Swain alias Jiban of Bamadevpur under Kuakhia police station limits in Jajpur, Jitendra Rana alias Banku and Susanta Kumar Barik, both of them belonging to Sainkul under Ramachandrapur police station limits in Keonjhar, Asish Kumar Chhatar alias Limbu of Chunabhati under Jajpur Road police station limits in Jajpur, Dharmendra Sahu of Gogala, Babu Mallik alias Jadu of Dharmasala, Sanjaya Nayak of Nalakula, Manas Malik of Bhuban, Pratap Kumar Nayak of Alisapatana, Rashmiranjan Panda of Kaima, all of them under Dharmasala police station limits in Jajpur, Srikanta Dehury and Mantu Khatua, both of them belonging to Pandua under Ramachandrapur police station limits and Prabina Rana of Purunapani in Keonjhar district.Talking to journalists, Jajpur Road police station inspector-in-charge (IIC) Rajiv Lochan Panda said police swung into action after district Superintendent of Police formed a special squad led by Jajpur Road IIC over frequent theft of motorcycles in Jajpur Road, Kalinga Nagar, Panikoili, Kuakhia, Korei and Barabati areas in the district for the last couple of months.The squad laid its net and finally managed to nab one of the members of the bike lifting racket.On his revelation, the squad arrested all others members including the kingpin and all the nine receivers.Later, police recovered as many as 13 stolen motorcycles from their possession.Revealing their modus of operandi, the IIC Panda said, “The gang normally target old two wheelers because it is easy to unlock.They always have 5-6 keys with them and with the help of these keys, they open the lock of the bikes and take away”.It is an inter-district gang and was operating in Jajpur, Keonjhar, Ganjam, Dhenkanal and Cuttack districts for the last one-and-a-half years, he said, adding that the gang had stolen at least 50 motorcycles and around 25 of them from Jajpur district alone.Panda said further investigation is on and there is possibility of recovery of more motorcycles and arrest of more persons involved in it.