The crime branch (unit II) of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate claims to have arrested two people who stole high end motorbikes from the region and later posted advertisements to sell them on the well-known online marketplace OLX.
Alarmed by the spate of bike theft cases in the Vasai-Virar belt, a police team led by Police Inspector Shahuraj Ranaware under the supervision of DCP (Crime) Dr. Mahesh Patil intensified vigilance and activated their core informer network in the twin-city.
Based on information that some suspects were regularly ordering new number plates, the police team zeroed in on the duo who have been identified as Shubham Kumar Birdhichand Sharma (22) and Rohan Sunil Singh (19), both residents of Nallasopara.
After rounds of sustained interrogation, the duo confessed to the crime and their involvement in more than a dozen bike theft cases from areas falling under the jurisdiction of police stations including Kapurbawdi, Kasarvadavli, Narpoli, Kumbharwada, MHB Colony, and Kasturba Marg.
During investigations it also came to light that the duo who are said to be college dropouts would lure prospective buyers and sell the stolen bikes at amazingly economic rates on the OLX marketplace.
Throwing light on the modus operandi used by the duo, an investigating officer said, “The duo would source out information from registration portals about bikes which were similar to those stolen by them. They would then change its number plates and fabricate documents mainly the registration certificate, click the pictures of the bike and upload the picture on OLX for sale.”
Apart from the laptop which the duo used to fabricate the documents also to interact with prospective buyers, the police have also recovered thirteen bikes (including five which they had managed to sell-off on OLX) from the possession of the duo who have been booked under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code. Both were remanded to police custody till March 17. Further investigations were underway.
