The Sadar Police unearthing a racket of bike lifters on Sunday arrested six persons and seized 22 bikes from their possession. They were identified as laxmikanta Patra (46) and Jhadeswar Dalei (47) of Mahagaba, Maheswar Das (35) of Dubasahi, Manas Dey (37) and Anil Sahu (49) of Chandakusumi and Susanta Jena (30) of Upalat.
They were forwarded to court on Sunday after being booked under various Sections of the IPC and were sent to jail on rejection of their bail petitions. Out of total 22 bikes seized, while 18 were recovered from Baleswar town and its nearby areas, rest four were seized from Kamarda and Jaleswar area. The bikes were of various companies and models and were stolen in different times from different places, including Baleswar, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj and Bhubaneswar. Sadar PS IIC Chandan Ghodai said Patra, who runs a grocery and pesticide outlet in Kamarda, was the mastermind of the bike lifting gang and was coordinating all the thefts. Earlier, the police in March had seized 12 bikes and arrested six persons in the district.