Cuttack, March 8: Police have arrested four persons, including the kingpin of a vehicle theft racket, which is suspected to be involved in stealing of 12 motorcycles from various parts of the state with the help of duplicate keys.
The four accused - all of whom have criminal antecedents - used to open the locks of two-wheelers with master duplicate keys and then flee with the vehicles.
Investigating a vehicle theft racket that was busted about a month ago, the police on Tuesday nabbed the four accused - identified as Balabhadra Mohanty, 38, Kamalakanta Behera, 32, Manoj Kumar Dhal, 34, and Ratiranjan Kanungo, 31. While busting the vehicle theft racket last month, the police had arrested Diptiranjan Mohanty, 30, from Cuttack and Rohit Naik, 28, from Dhenkanal. Their arrest had led to the recovery of 11 stolen vehicles, including nine motorcycles and two expensive cars.
Interrogating them, the police got to know about the key players of the gang - Balabhadra, Kamalakanta, Manoj and Ratiranjan.
Assistant commissioner of police, Cuttack, Anil Mishra said: "During interrogation, Balabhadra confessed that he and his associates stolen many motorcycles from various places of Odisha and prepared forged documents to sell the stolen vehicles."
"After interrogating Balabhadra, 12 motorcycles with forged documents wererecovered from Basta in Balasore. One country-made revolver and fake vehicles papers and smart cards were also seized," Mishra said.
The police are also trying to find out if the arrested were also running an extortion racket in Dhenkanal by using fake press cards and impersonating as correspondents of a popular news channel.
Officials beaten up
Local residents roughed up two forest guards for misbehaving with a couple in Angul on Wednesday. The incident occurred when the officials chased a couple who were on a bike and interrogate them on suspicion of carrying marijuana. The misunderstanding turned out to be a nightmare for the forest guards. The forest guards were thrashed by local residents after the husband-wife duo were proved innocent as the sack they were carrying on the bike was found loaded with fodder.
