Man arrested for stealing bikes for ‘joyrides’

Mumbai: A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing motorcycles in the city

Mumbai: A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing motorcycles in the city. The incident came to light after the accused, Dinesh Kumar Ramlal, was caught riding the ‘stolen’ bike without a helmet by the traffic police in Colaba on August 22. This, after the complainant, a Ghatkopar resident, received an e-challan on his mobile phone from the traffic police for violation.

Man arrested for stealing bikes for ‘joyrides’

After questioning Dinesh, the Ghatkopar police found four stolen bikes from him.

Police said Dinesh, a deaf man with a speech disability, lives in a slum in Colaba and used to work on a towing van at Colaba traffic police chowki, but he lost the job a year ago. But, by then he is said to have learnt the trick of starting bikes without the key, by joining wire directly to switch.

Police officials said the bike lover first stole an Activa for a joyride and dumped the scooter in Colaba area after running out of fuel. In the last six months, he stole four scooters and cases have been registered in connection with the thefts in Dindoshi, Ghatkopar and Colaba police stations, said the officials.

According to the police, Dinesh stole an Activa which was parked under Asalfa metro station on June 22. The Activa owner, Tamim Abbas Shaikh had complained with the Ghatkopar police station after he did not find his scooter. The incident came to light on August 22 afternoon when Dinesh was riding Activa in Colaba area without helmet and police captured his picture uploaded on the traffic police website. Shaikh received an e-challan message on his mobile phone for the traffic violation and immediately alerted Ghatkopar police.

Based on the message details a police team checked the CCTV footage of the area where traffic police had captured him on camera without a helmet. After inquiring with several people, it became clear Dinesh lived in the same locality. “Two days later, we found Dinesh roaming in the Colaba area. He was apprehended and brought to the police station,” said senior inspector Sanjay Dahake of the Ghatkopar police station.

“It was a difficult task for us to interrogate Dinesh, as he cannot speak and interacts only in sign language. We then lodged Dinesh in our detection room where police officers were interrogating a murder accused. Dinesh got scared and started revealing by using sign language that he had not stolen three more bikes,” said another police officer.

Police inspector Dyneshwar Kharmate, who handled Dinesh and followed his sign language, took him to Dindoshi from where the police recovered two stolen Activa scooters, abandoned on the side of the road. Later he took us to the Colaba area and two more Activa scooters were found, added the police officer.