BHUBANESWAR: Police on Saturday arrested two cousins including a diploma engineer and a B.Tech student for theft, and seized nine stolen motorcycles from them.
Police said the accused Basant Kumar Rout (28) has a degree in diploma in engineering and his cousin Ankit Kumar Rout (21) is studying B.Tech in a private college here. Both are natives of Odagaon in Nayagarh district.
Basant, who runs a garage in his hometown, allegedly lured Ankit to steal motorcycles from various places in the capital city like AIIMS parking, Maitri Vihar, Unit-VI and others to make easy and quick money.
Police launched a probe after receiving a complaint from one Pramod Kumar Sahoo on January 6 who alleged that his Bajaj Pulsar 180 was stolen from AIIMS-BBS parking lot.
Acting on a tip-off, police nabbed Basant when he arrived in the city to meet Ankit. They seized one motorcycle from him, which was found to be Pramod’s.
“Basant used to dismantle and remodel the stolen motorcycles before disposing them in other districts like Kandhamal. He had changed Pramod’s Bajaj Pulsar 180 into Pulsar 220 and had affixed a fake number plate too. We ascertained it was the complainant’s motorcycle only after checking its engine and chassis numbers,” said Khandagiri police station IIC, Abhimanyu Das. Investigation revealed, the two accused persons were involved in stealing motorcycles since the last two years. While the duo had sold many of them, they had also kept a few for their personal use.