Bike-lifting racket busted in Butwal; 12 arrested

LUMBINI: Police have busted a racket involved in stealing motorcycles in Butwal and surrounding areas.

Area Police Office Butwal on Monday presented six members of the racket to the media. Likewise, police have also arrested six others involved in stealing motorcycles. Police have seized 14 motorcycles from them.

DSP Dan Bahadur Thapa said the police had launched a special operation after cases of motorcycle theft increased significantly in the Butwal and Tilottama areas of Rupandehi. “We busted a gang of six members, and six others who were stealing motorcycles by forming small groups of two to three people,” Thapa said.

According to Thapa, the special operation was launched about a month ago.

The thieves were found to have sold motorcycles to buyers in Gulmi, Syanjga, Baglung and as far as Kathmandu.

The arrested have been identified as Taruna Rana (19) of Butwal-3; Sunil Kumar Chaudhary (43) of Ramgram, Nawalparasi; Karan Tharu (20) of Tilottama-25; Saroj Thapa (26), Deepak Regami Magar (26) and Dipesh Thapa (24) of Tilottama-6; Hitesh Rna (25) of Bareng, Baglung; Deepak Samat (2), Ashish Samat (19), Pramod Purja (29) and Milan Khatri (22) of Tilottama-5 and Ashish Nepali (18) of Tilottama-4.

DSP Thapa said the police recovered the bikes from Rupandehi, Palpa, Gulmi, Baglung, Syangja and other districts. The owners of seven bikes have already come into the police’s contact, while police are searching for the owners of the seven remaining bikes.

Police have secured remand for all 12 for an investigation into the theft case.