Bike lifters’ gang busted in Odisha capital; four arrested

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Apr 5:

Commissionerate police claims it has busted a gang of car and bike lifters that it says had stolen two Bolero cars and two motorcycles in the Odisha capital over the last few days.

Four members of the gang, who had been detained on Friday, were formally arrested by Khandagiri police on Sunday. Two other members of the gang are still at large, police said.

The four accused arrested were identified as Alekh Behera of Phulbani, Prasanna Das of Nayagarh, Manoranjan Pradhan of Phulbani and Ashok Kumar Nayak of Ganjam district.

“After stealing the cars, the gang used to change the number plates and the colour of the vehicles and then sold them off,” police said.

The miscreants used to sell the cars for as little as Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000, according to police.

“The stolen vehicles were received by Prasanna Das who in turn used to give them to Behera who used them for ferrying ganja,” police said.

Nayapalli police had arrested Nayak on the same charges on January 2. Police kept a close watch on his movements after he got bail and managed to bust the gang.

The police also managed to recover the stolen vehicles.

A case has been registered and all four miscreants were produced in a local court today.