5 minors held for running bike-lifting gang

Five boys aged between 15 and 18 were nabbed by the Delhi Police on Thursday for stealing six motorbikes that they failed to sell.

Five boys aged between 15 and 18 were nabbed by the Delhi Police on Thursday for stealing six motorbikes that they failed to sell.

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They were led by an 18-year-old who told the police he started the gang to raise money to buy medicines for his ailing father who suffers from asthma.

The gang leader's partners in crime were two 16-year-olds and two 15-year-olds from well-known schools in north Delhi.

One of them is a student at Kulachi Hansraj Model School in Ashok Vihar.

The police said the minors are in Class 10 and Class 12.

"One's father is an electrician with the railways, another's father owns a small restaurant while one belongs to an affluent family," said Rupinder Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police (north).

"The gang leader lured his minor friends to start committing the thefts. They managed to procure a master key to unlock the motorcycles," Kumar said.

The gang used the master key to steal bikes from areas such as Saraswati Vihar, Sarai Rohilla, Rajouri Garden, Bharat Nagar and Moti Nagar, he said.

"They used to change the number plates of the stolen motorcycles," the officer said.

The police said that gang leader Lokesh Kumar and one of his juvenile accomplices were stopped at a check-post on April 6 and asked to produce documents of the motorcycle but could not.

After sustained interrogation, they confessed to having stolen the bike with the help of their associates.