Two youths who stole several high-powered bikes for joyrides were arrested by the Koparkhairane police in Navi Mumbai. The accused, identified as Kunal Ranjeet Yadav (19) and Ajay Chabilal Nirmal (20), both residents of Koparkhairane village, were nabbed after Sandesh Dattaram Maladkar, another accused, spilled the beans on them.
Maladkar was arrested by Kalwa police and then transferred to Koparkhairane police for another case. During the course of interrogation, he revealed the names of his friends who had stolen several bikes. Both accused outs would steal the bikes during the day, police said.
“The duo would randomly steal any high-powered bike and use it till it runs out of petrol. They would then abandon the bike and steal another. We recovered 15 bikes from the accused. They showed us the spots where they had abandoned stolen bikes, and we recovered the vehicles from there. We doubt there would be more bikes stolen by them,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-I) Prashant Khaire said.
Among the 15 bikes that the police recovered, no one has come forward to register a complaint of theft, so the police are clueless about who owns them.
“We will approach the Regional Transport Officer to get the details of the owners of these four bikes. We doubt the owners ever registered a complaint about these bikes with the police,” Mr. Khaire added.
Recently, Zone-I police conducted a screening of their area and found around 232 bikes abandoned.
“Offenders like these abandon the motorcycle after use so it is important that if anyone notices any such abandoned vehicle anywhere, they should inform the police. Vehicle thefts are on the rise, and to curb them it is important that people park at designated parking areas only,” Mr. Khaire added.
They showed us the spots where they had abandoned stolen bikes, and we recovered the vehicles from there. We doubt there are more such bikes
Prashant Khaire
DCP (Zone-I), Navi Mumbai
