SHILLONG, July 7: In a major bust, police in West Garo Hills have arrested 17 members of an interstate gang of vehicle lifters and confiscated 45 stolen bikes.
The bust comes days after the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT), under the supervision of West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police VS Rathore, to arrest cases of vehicle theft in Garo Hills.
“The SIT was authorised to investigate all undetected vehicle theft cases registered in last five years. Through meticulous investigation conducted over last 4 days, the SIT has managed to recover 45 suspected stolen bikes and has arrested 17 persons on charges of committing theft, robbery, dacoity, forgery, cheating and for habitually dealing with stolen bikes,” the SP said.
In addition, 17 mobile phones and other incriminating materials have also been recovered from the possession of the arrested persons.
According to the police, the seizures corroborate the presence of interstate vehicle theft gangs operating across almost all districts of Assam and Meghalaya. It is also learnt that the bikes stolen from Assam are being sold in Meghalaya and vice versa through garage mechanics and second-hand vehicle sellers.
Through these recoveries, 10 undetected cases have been solved.
The SP said that a common feature identified during the investigation of these cases was that the local residents of the district are purchasing second-hand bikes as well as selling or exchanging their bikes without proper documentation and without obtaining the vehicle enquiry report from police.
Some persons have also purchased vehicles from online markets like OLX, Facebook etc through which stolen vehicles were being advertised and sold,
Registration Certificates (RCs), and engine and chassis numbers of most of these vehicles were also tampered with in order to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma took to Twitter to congratulate the police team.
“Dacoits from different areas tried to indulge in criminal activities to jeopardise the peace in Meghalaya but @wghpolice nabbed 17 dacoits & recovered 45 bikes & 17 mobile phones in a well synchronised operation,” the chief minister said.
