Cuttack: Police busted a bike-lifting racket with the arrest of three persons from Jagatpur on Sunday.

The cops also recovered 14 motorcycles from the arrested accused, identified as Debashis Mohanty, 22, and Abhaya Bahadur, 23, both from Cuttack, and Sushanta Dalasingh, 20, of Puri.

This is the fifth bike-lifting racket that the police have busted in and around Cuttack since October.

Harihar Swain lodged a complaint with CDA Phase-II police after goons had stolen his motorcycle, parked in front of his Sector X home.

While investigating the complaint, the cops examined CCTV footage near Swain's house and found two photographs, which had captured the alleged perpetrators. But, they had not been able to track the culprits for over four months.

"We traced the three accused from Jagatpur on Sunday and recovered 14 motorcycles," Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh said.

"They confessed that they had stolen the motorcycles from CDA, Markatnagar and Manglabag areas in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar," he said.On December 5, the police busted a bike-lifting racket with the arrest of one person from Jagatpur and recovered 12 motorcycles.

Sadar police had busted a racket that used stolen vehicles to transport liquor with the arrest of one person from Nuagarh on November 17.

On November 5, Choudwar police busted another such gang and arrested two persons, again from Jagatpur, and recovered seven stolen motorcycles.

In October, the cops police had busted a gang of bike-lifters with the arrest of two persons from Jagatpur and recovered 17 motorcycles.