Cuttack, April 2: Think twice before posting a free advertisement for selling your vehicle online as police have arrested a man for looting vehicles from such gullible sellers in the twin cities.

The accused, Manoj Patra, was nabbed after a detailed investigation in connection with the loot of a motorcycle from Chauliaganj last month.

Addressing a news conference here, deputy commissioner of police Sanjiv Arora said that Patra used to target potential sellers who used to post free ads in connection with sale of vehicles, including two-wheelers and four-wheelers, on various websites.

A motorcycle and two four-wheelers have been recovered from his possession, while efforts are on to ascertain whether a gang was operating in such loot of vehicles. Both the vehicles were looted from Rasulgarh and Tamando in Bhubaneswar.

“The accused used to contact persons who had posted advertisements in connection with sale of vehicles on a website called www.olx.in and other such websites and later used to decamp with the vehicles on the pretext of test drives,” said Arora.

According to Arora, a lot of people in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar have fallen prey to such tactics of Patra and such cases go unreported on a number of occasions. However, Sisir Rout of Madhupatna had lodged a complaint in connection with the loot of his motorcycle with Chauliaganj police station on March 10.

Later, the accused was nabbed based on tracking of the phone number used by Patra to contact various sellers.

Senior police officials said that Patra, who hails from Nischintkohili, was staying at Chandaka area for the last couple of years. A driver by profession, the accused was engaging the stolen vehicles in various travel agencies and was doing a brisk business.

In another incident, Markat Nagar police have busted a chain-snatching gang by arresting four persons.

The accused have been identified as Khageswar Mohanty, Manoj Das, Prafula Sahu and the receiver as Ashish Kumar Sahu of Bhadrak. The police said that all the three accused were arrested in connection with the loot of a gold chain from a woman at CDA Sector-7 on March 22.

The members of the criminal gang were involved in a series of chain snatching and bike lifting incidents. Two chains weighing 20 grams, cash worth Rs 10,000, a DVD player and four stolen motorcycles have been recovered from their possession.