In the week that followed, the police recovered five more stolen bikes from the thieves, who confessed that they were involved in stealing bikes from Trombay and Vashi for the last couple of months.

“Last week Johny Kandaswami alias Suresh (28), Rajesh Hariswami alias Raja (21), Rizwan Shamsuddin Sayyed alias Mintu (21) and Sadiq Kader Moinuddin Sheikh alias Zilani (19) were riding on two bikes when we stopped them. They didn’t have the necessary documents of the bikes and hence we seized the vehicles and detained the four,” said assistant police inspector, Trombay police station, Subash Kokate.

The accused would break the locks of the bikes, wire the engines and ride away on the stolen bikes. They operated at night so there were minimum witnesses, added Kokate. During interrogation, the accused confessed that there were three two-wheeler theft cases registered against them at the Vashi police station and another one in Trombay itself.