Alok Mishra
Patna: With the arrest of five persons, Patna Police on December 23 claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle lifters mainly operating on highways. Police also recovered countrymade pistols, two live cartridges, two looted four-wheelers including an SUV besides master key from the possession of the arrested criminals, said Patna Senior SP (SSP) Manu Maharaaj here.
Police said that taking serious note of vehicles loot in rural areas of Patna district including Bihta, Maner, Naubatpur and Bikram, the SSP directed SDPO (Danapur) and SHOs of aforesaid areas to intensify patrolling under their respective jurisdiction particularly on highways. In the past few days, two four-wheelers were looted in Naubatpur and Bihta and the SSP had directed the SHOs to arrest those involved in the crime.
The SSP received inputs that some criminals on two four-wheelers had assembled at Sadisopur Bishunpura to commit some crime. He immediately alerted SDPO (Danapur) Rajesh Kumar, Bihta ps SHO Ramakant Tiwary and Ajit Kumar of Bihta directing them to arrest the criminals.
A police team reached the spot and saw some persons speeding way on a four-wheeler. The police team chased them and managed to intercept the four-wheeler and arrested two criminals. Police also recovered two loaded country-made pistols from their possession. Acting on the revelations made by the arrested criminals, a police team later arrested two other members of the gang from Bhojpur. Two four-wheelers were also recovered on the revelations made by the arrested criminals.
The arrested criminals, during interrogation, revealed that they were involved in loot of a SUV, pick-up van and a tractor from Naubatpur. They also revealed that there are 10-15 members in the gang and some of them also operate in other districts of the state. Police said that the gang members used to loot vehicles from different cities, contact agents of different states and after changing the number plates of the vehicles, they were supplied to Delhi, Mumbai and Assam.
Police said that if any vehicle was not sold, the gang used to handover the vehicle to some garage mechanic, who dismantled and sold the parts either in local markets or supplied the parts to markets of other states. The arrested criminals also told police that they had been earlier sent to jail by different police stations including Bihta, Naubatpur, Sultanganj and Jagdishpur in Bhojpur district.
The arrested criminals were identified as Tinku Kumar alias Vivek Kumar Dilawarpur in Bihta, Sunil Kumar alias Suraj Kumar (Dariyapur, Naubatpur), Guddu Kumar ( Sandesh, Bhojpur), Nagendra Singh ( Bahadurpur under Garhani ps in Bhojpur) and Dharmendra Kumar (Subahbigha under Dehri ps in Rohtas. The SSP said that police team involved in cracking this case that led to the busting of an inter-state gang would be rewarded.