Man, four minors held for series of bike thefts

Thiruvananthapuram: A probe by Karamana police to find a stolen motorcycle ended with the arrest of a man, who had been running a gang of minor boys to steal vehicles.

The police identified the main accused as Nizar (48) of Nadayara near Varkala. He had been running the racket under the cover of his scrap shop at Nadayara. The police also nabbed four boys, all aged 17, in connection with the case.

According to Karamana sub-inspector R S Sreekanth, the gang was busted following the probe to find a motorcycle which was stolen from Karamana three days ago. Visuals caught in surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood showed the boys stealing the motorcycle.

One of the boys was a local resident and hence the police could identify him. Thus, the remaining boys were also taken into custody.

“We actually detained five boys, but, let one of them go. The boy had helped the others secure SIM cards without ID proofs and he wasn’t aware of the crime the others were involved in,” the SI said. The other four were produced before the juvenile justice board.

All four boys are students in a school in the city. They used to commit petty crimes and thus they got introduced to Nizar by another youth. The police are also looking for the youth, who is from Tamil Nadu.

The SI further said that Nizar’s modus operandi was to dismantle the vehicles and smuggle them to Palakkad and Coimbatore, where they would assemble the parts again and sell them.

The boys acted as told by Nizar. For each Royal Enfield motorcycle, the boys would get Rs 10,000. For other brands of bikes, the commission was Rs 5,000. For vehicles that were too old, the commission was just food and beverages.

It has been learned that Nizar had been using minor boys in Kollam and Ranni too similarly.

This is the fourth gang involving minors that has been busted by the city police in a span of one year. Earlier, similar gangs were arrested from Poojappura, Medical College and Sreekaryam police station limits.