Bengaluru: 27 bikes, 15 four-wheelers seized; 9 held

Bengaluru: The Jalahalli police arrested two notorious bike-lifters and recovered 27 stolen two-wheelers from them.

The accused were identified as Niranjan M. alias Ajju (18), a resident of Satyamangala in Tumakuru district, and his associate Nitin Kumar N. (18), a resident of Kora in Tumakuru district. While Niranjan is a PUC dropout, Nitin quit a diploma course midway.

Niranjan was sitting on a bike at BEL Circle when a police patrol team found him behaving suspiciously.

They asked for the bike documents, but he told them that the papers were at home. But soon after, he changed his statement to say that the documents were lost.

As their suspicion grew, the police took him to the Jalahalli police station and interrogated him. That was when he spilled that he stole bikes and also named his associate Nitin, who too was arrested. The police recovered 27 bikes worth '9 lakh from them.

They lifted high-end two-wheelers parked outside houses during night and sold them cheap.

They confessed to stealing bikes in Bengaluru and Tumakuru districts, the police said. While nine cases of bike thefts were detected, the police are trying to trace the owners of the remaining vehicles.

Seven arrested for vehicle theft
The Rajagopal Nagar police arrested seven thieves who were stealing four-wheelers to lead a lavish life.

The police suspect that the crime syndicate is spread across Karnataka and neighbouring states.

The accused were identified as Jeevan, Srinivas, Manjunath, Sagar, Amjad, Noorullah and Praveen.

They hired personal, non-taxi cars available for rent.

Once hired, they would take the driver to an isolated place, make him drink till he lost his senses, dump him and then flee with the car.

The police have recovered 15 cars from the seven accused.