The arrested men at Kadamkuan police station in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Stealing vehicles and selling them is passé. A gang in Patna took to dismantling the stolen two-wheelers before selling the parts as scrap.

But their joy run ended on Wednesday night when police picked up five members of the gang who used to allegedly steal motorbikes and scooters from different areas of the city, dismantle them and sell off the parts to scrap dealers.

The men have been identified as Dheeraj Kumar Pandey, Kanhai alias Nanhe Kumar, Manoj Sah, Uday Kumar and Ganesh Kumar.

Patna city superintendent of police Jayant Kant said Dheeraj and Kanhai were arrested by a police patrol on Arya Kumar Road in the Rajendra Nagar area under the jurisdiction of Kadamkuan police station on Wednesday night.

“They were picked up by the patrol team on the basis of suspicion. When the policemen questioned them, the men confessed that they were a part of a gang involved in stealing vehicles,” said Kant.

He added: “During interrogation, they came up with the names of three other associates who have also been picked up later.”

The police also recovered a sack of bike brakes, 10 brake shoes, 10 silencers, 75 pieces of nut and bolts and a scooter with all its parts separated from the arrested men.

The men confessed to the police that they used to steal two-wheelers from different areas of Patna like Kadamkuan, Kankerbagh, Patrakar Nagar, Pirbhore and Gandhi Maidan. “The men said they would first steal the two-wheelers. Then, with the help of scrap dealers, the vehicles would be dismantled. Each part would be separated and then the parts would be sold off as scrap material,” said another police officer.

He added: “The parts of the stolen vehicle would be sold for anything between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500. Till now, they have stolen many vehicles and sold them off part by part. We are interrogating the criminals at present and trying to find out which scrap dealers used to help them.”

The police officer also said: “All the five men are residents of Patna. How many vehicles they have stolen is not known yet. But they have been doing this for a very long time. We will try and check with the different police stations of the city and draw up a list of stolen two-wheelers. We are trying to find out if there are more people in the gang.”

The officer added: “We suspect that the gang may have spread its activities to other districts as well. We are investigating into the matter.”