Vehicle theft gang busted

TT, Cooch Behar: Six members of an alleged gang involved in the theft and sale of motorcycles and battery-run rickshaws across north Bengal have been arrested.

Nine stolen motorcycles and three totos were seized from them.

"A few months ago, we had recovered 22 stolen motorcycles. Since then, our officers had been trying to find out a racket that was operating throughout north Bengal and was engaged in stealing two wheelers and battery-run rickshaws. We acted on some information and all six of them were captured during different raids conducted from October 25. All of them are in our custody now.

Our officers are interrogating them to collect more information about the activities The six members of the gang after the arrest in Cooch Behar. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti and also about people to whom they used to sell the stolen vehicles," said Bholanath Pandey, the superintendent of police, Cooch Behar, on Sunday.

Of the six arrested, Sanjit Sarkar, a resident of Mathabhanga, is the mastermind of the racket, the police said. The other five are Prasenjit Burman, Dulal Burman and Ashok Burman, all from Cooch Behar district, and Shyamal Roy and Shambhu Roy, who hail from Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri district.

Preliminary investigations suggest that led by Sanjit, three from Cooch Behar, used to steal the vehicles. They would then hand over the vehicles to the two from Maynaguri who in turn would search for buyers and sell the vehicles.

"They would hire a toto by offering a higher fare and would take away the vehicle by overpowering the driver. In a similar manner, they would seek lift on motorcycles and would then attack the rider at a deserted place to steal the bike," said a police officer.

Firearm arrest Sujan Pal, a resident of Ashokpally in Raiganjl was arrested from Mahipur More under Hemtabad police station of North Dinajpur on Saturday night. A revolver and five rounds of live cartridges have been seized from him.