Bike thieves active in Siliguri, police on high alert

EOI, 26 Aug 2014 : Following the recent motorcycle theft of a local journalist, the Siliguri police have promptly swung into action and arrested two suspects known to have criminal records.

Rabin Biswas (29) and Jay Mondal (30) are the suspects with the police confirming Mondal is a noted criminal and has several cases pending against him at the Bhakti Nagar police station. Both the accused are reportedly residents of Shitalpara, Jalpaimore under Jalpaiguri district. 

According to sources, there are active gangs of bike lifters from the four districts of Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur. They mainly operate in Sikkim and Siliguri and after stealing the bikes, they sell the engines to Bangladeshis as also to residents of Islampur. 

The bike engines are used for fishing in Bangladesh after being retrofitted into boats, while buyers in Islampur use them to make three-wheelers locally called ‘bhut-bhuti’ that run in remote villages to ferry passengers. 

The bike lifters especially target Press and government vehicle as it helps them evade checking because the police do not usually stop vehicles with Press and government department stickers. 

The sources also informed there are some scrap shops in Siliguri where the bikes are dismantled part by part. The body is sold as scrap while the engines are packed in sacks and loaded in buses headed to Islampur. 

When they are unloaded in Islampur, they are smuggled across the border into Bangladeshis and sold there. Depending on the horsepower of the engines and their make, an engine can fetch anything from Rs10,000 to Rs 20,000.