Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police have busted a bike-lifting racket in Bhubaneswar with the arrest of two members of the gang and the seizure of 14 motorcycles from them.
The arrested persons have been identified as Prasanta Lenka (31), from Radhakishorepur PS in Khuntuni of Cuttack and Indrajeet Singh (37), of Bomikhal Jayadurga Nagar in Laxmisagar PS of Bhubaneswar UPD, the police said.
Based on a complaint lodged by one Pushpaturaka Rao (23) of the Sikharchandi Vihar area, the Capital Police Station registered a case (690/23). The complainant alleged that she and her friend had gone inside Biju Patnaik Park by parking their bike at gate no 2 on November 24 but when they returned the bike was missing.
On November 30 at about 3 PM, the police got reliable information that one person was sitting on a Yamaha FZ bike having the registration number of the stolen vehicle.
Following this, a police team apprehended Prasanta Lenka and seized the bike. During interrogation, he disclosed that he used to steal motorcycles from Forest Park, Madhusudan Park, IG Park areas in Bhubaneswar and other districts of Odisha and hide those bikes at different parking places. Another accused, Indrajeet Singh used to receive the stolen bikes from Lenka, hide those bikes in the Master Canteen Parking and sell those as per his convenience.
During the investigation, the police seized a total of 14 motorcycles from their possession from different parking places in Bhubaneswar.
Further investigation is going on and many more motorcycles are to be recovered with the arrest of other accused persons. These culprits used to sell the motorcycles in remote areas, particularly to the innocent people, the police said.
As the prima-facie evidence U/s. 379/413/34 IPC is well established against the accused persons and they were forwarded to the Court today, the police added.