Three bike lifters held, racket busted

In a major breakthrough, the police busted a gang of motorbike lifters and arrested three persons including a Bangladeshi national from different areas in Siliguri in the past three days.

Police said acting on a tip-off that a team comprising policemen from Bidhannagar police outpost conducted a raid in a hideout and found one of the three miscreants.

Two motorbike and four masterkeys were found from the house of the accused Mukhtar Alam, who is a resident of Phansideoa area.

After interrogating Mukhtar, the investigating officers came to know about two other members of the racket and conducted raids at the hideouts where they had taken shelter for the past few months.

The police arrested Md Siddique from his residence at Chopra and Md Siddiq, who is a Bangladeshi national, from another hideout at Chopra. Police recovered eight more stolen motorbikes from their hideouts.

Investigation revealed that the racket had been operating in the area for the past one-and-a-half-years and the police have initiated a probe to know that how many motorbikes have they stolen so far and what was their modus operandi.

Police, however, came to know that Md Siddiq's main work was to smuggle the bikes to Bangladesh where engines of those bikes were used to run motorised vans. Even in some parts of the bordering districts of the state, engines of stolen motorbikes are fitted in van rickshaws.

The police have come to know that there are some more members in the racket. In a bid to get the whereabouts of other members of the racket, the police are interrogating all three of them.

The investigation revealed that they had stolen most of the motorbikes from areas including Bhaktinagar, Matigara and Raigunj.