Hyderabad: Three held for bike theft, 14 bikes recovered

Hyderabad: Bowenpally police apprehended three persons for bike theft and making fake vehicle registration certificates. They recovered 14 two-wheelers valued at Rs 8 lakh from their possessions.

The arrested persons were Raazak Khan (38), a bike mechanic; Yammala Yohanu (29), a car driver; and Goriparthi Venkatappayya (28), who runs a xerox centre. The police detected 10 cases across Bowenpally, Trimulgherry, Nampally, Jeedimetla, and Alwal. The police recovered bikes of various models, duplicate registration certificates, and a laptop.

According to the police, Raazak and Yohanu planned to commit property offences and started committing bike thefts in October 2023 in Bowenpally, Trimulgherry, Nampally, Jeedimetla, Alwal, and other areas of Hyderabad and the Cyberabad Commissionerate.

The police stated that they operated in residential areas during the early morning hours, from 3 am to 6 am. After committing the crimes, they would leave the stolen bikes near the scene for one or two days before retrieving them at a convenient time to avoid detection by patrolling officers.

Subsequently, they sold the stolen bikes on OLX to innocent persons for prices ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. Some buyers requested the original registration documents of the vehicle, prompting them to approach Venkatappayya, who operated a DTP centre in Gollapalem village, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh. Venkatappayya prepared duplicate vehicle registration certificates at his DTP centre. Venkatappayya obtained owner information from the RTA website using a laptop. He then provided this information to Raazak and Yohanu for a price of Rs 1,500 per document. After receiving the duplicate registration certificates, Raazak and Yohanu sold the vehicles through platforms like OLX and other channels.