A crooked cop & his stash of 53 bikes!

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In a case of the fence eating the crop, a police constable working as an orderly for a city based IPS officer was running a bike lifting racket, using three others including two juvenile offenders to steal 53 highend bikes worth `77 lakh that were left parked in the city. The accused who is a 2016 batch police constable was working as the personal driver to the IPS officer. Over the last two months, the department had kept him under watch after his lavish lifestyle and frequent changing of highend bikes attracted notice.

The vigil finally paid off when police busted the vehicle theft racket, finding around 53 bikes worth around Rs 77 lakhs that were in the constable’s possession. He had been running the racket, using a rented house in Vidyaranyapura, from where he produced fake vehicle documents as his headquarters.

The arrested were identified as Honnappa Duradappa Malagi alias Ravi, the police constable, Ramesh, a cloth vendor from Rajasthan and the two juvenile offenders from Tamil Nadu. The accused had stolen the bikes from across the city, including Nandini Layout, Yeshwanthapura, Gangammanagudi, HMT Layout, Jalahalli, Hebbal, Jnanabharathi, Peenya, RG Nagar and Vijaynagar areas.

The accused constable is a native of Haveri and was earlier working in Vidyaranyapura police station. The three others who were arrested were employed by the constable. The two juvenile offenders were earlier working in service stations. The accused had made them quit their jobs and employed them. Their role was to roam around the city and lift high-end bikes. The stolen bikes were then taken to the constable’s house in Vidyaranyapura, where he would make some alterations, before selling them.

“The constable was also very tech savvy. He would be looking at sites where second hand two wheelers are sold. He would collect the registration numbers of the bikes that were for sale. He would use the same registration numbers to the same make of stolen two-wheelers to sell them to customers in different districts. He was also producing fake vehicle documents,” said an officer on part of investigations. The constable had a POCSO case registered against him after joining the police service. The case was registered in Haveri. However the B.Com degree holder was acquitted in the case.

“For every stolen bike, he was paying the other three accused on a commission basis. His lavish lifestyle made the department suspicious, and unknown to him they began to keep an eye on him. This suspicion grew stronger when they noticed the three accused coming to his house late in the night. The department then started collecting information about him which led to the uncovering of the bike lifting racket. The constable has been taken into police custody to check if he is involved in any other cases,” the officer added.

The arrest was made by the Magadi Road police. Further investigations are on.