In a major catch, the city police arrested a five-member gang and took a juvenile into their custody, for their alleged involvement in a series of bike thefts at various areas on Wednesday. The police have seized 13 two-wheelers, which are valued at ₹21 lakh, from them.
All the accused are aged between 19 and 25 years, and were committing offences to lead a lavish life and were also habituated to ganja, the police said.
The arrested were identified as K. Shiva (25) of Nakkapalli in Anakapalli district, D. Surya Teja (19) of Payakaraopeta in Anakapalli district, Senapathi Sai (21) from Malkapuram in Visakhapatnam district, D. Nagaraju (20) from Pedagantyada and I. Venkatesh (19) of Malkapuram.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crimes) G. Naganna said that last month, the police had received a complaint of a two-wheeler theft in Malkapuram area. During the investigation, the police have checked CCTV footage and suspected a person’s activity. Under the supervision of ACP (Crimes) Ch. Penta Rao, a team was formed with Harbour CI (Crime) M. Avatharam, Gajuwaka CI (Crime) P. Surya Narayana and others, who have taken the suspect into their custody and subsequently arrested four others, who were involved in a series of bike thefts during the last six months.
Mr. Naganna said that the gang had committed four thefts at Gajuwaka, three in Payakaraopeta, while one case each was reported from Malkapuram, S. Rayavaram and Narsipatnam. A few FIRs were yet to be registered, he said.
During their investigation, the police found that the accused have met each other during some parties in the Agency. Among them, Surya Teja has completed B.Sc., Computers. The main accused M. Shiva was earlier involved in a bike liftingcase. The gang disposes of the stolen bikes to some unidentified persons in the Agency areas of Alluri Sitarama Raju district. The gang members lead a lavish life, with the money they got through the sale of bikes by organising parties at Lambasingi and other places, the police said.
Mr. Naganna also appealed to the youth not to get habituated to ganja or any sort of drugs. He said that police were there to help and counsel them in case of any need. He also appealed to the citizens to install CCTV cameras in their locality, which could not only help in crime detection, but may also in prevention.
