The Tallakulam police have arrested four persons, including a student studying 10th Standard, in connection with a motorcycle theft. This is the second time that the city police have come across students’ involvement in two-wheeler theft.
R. Richard, an employee with a gas agency near Periyar Bus Stand, was shocked to find his motorcycle parked near a shopping mall on Gokhale Road missing. Upon lodging a police complaint, Richard was asked to check the parking lots across Madurai in search of his motorcycle.
Over 10 of his friends branched out in teams to different parts of the city. One of the team found the vehicle parked in front of a hotel near Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand.
After getting an alert about the lost-and-found motorcycle, the friends gathered at different points nearby and stealthily kept an eye on the vehicle.
When two youth tried to move it, the friends pounced on them and handed over the duo to the police.
Investigations revealed that the two youths were part of a four-member gang involved in vehicle thefts. The police arrested the two — a college dropout, S. Marikani (21), and a 19-year-old boy, both from Jawaharpuram, and picked up T. Kishore of Palanichamy Nagar in Athikulam and a 16-year-old boy, also from Athikulam.
The police said while the first two persons were in the habit of stealing motorcycles, the other two had joined them recently.
The 19-year-old boy is a habitual offender and had few cases of motorcycle thefts against him in Sellur and Tallakulam police stations.
They used to derive fun out of riding stolen vehicles, it was revealed .
“In the past, the boy used to steal vehicles using duplicate keys, ride them till the petrol gets exhausted and abandon them. He used to do it so frequently that he could not recollect the spots where he left the vehicles. The police had collected those vehicles as abandoned ones. But now he had started stealing petrol from other vehicles,” an investigating officer said.
The police seized one more two-wheeler from the gang. It was also stolen from the same spot a month back. The thieves had altered the vehicle and had been using it with a fake registration number.
While the 16-year-old boy was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, the other three were remanded in judicial custody, the police said.
The Anna Nagar police had arrested two school-going boys and seized five motorcycles which they had stolen for joyous ride in the city in September.
The police want the parents to have an eye on the activities of their children to prevent them from falling into the company of criminal elements.
