DIMAPUR, MAY 22 (MExN): An incident - the recovery of a mere stolen bike on the evening of May 21 - could as well testify the unabashed existence of shady dealings in stolen vehicles in Dimapur. This all too open suspicion, while often left ‘un-dealt’, came to the fore on the evening of May 21, when the owner of a two-wheeler was lucky enough to recover his motor-cycle after a gap of four months.
The bike, a Yamaha Fz-S model, went missing in the month of January and the owner had duly registered a police complaint. It was originally registered as - AS 05D 2859. As luck would have it, the missing bike was discovered in the possession of another person from Burma Camp, Dimapur by the owner himself on May 21 under a fake Assam registration number (AS 01 G 5831). The engine number of the bike was found tampered with. Police were immediately informed; who in turn confiscated the bike and arrested the individual found possessing the bike.
Surprisingly or rather otherwise, the person found with the bike had in possession supposedly genuine registration papers in the form of a ‘smart card’ reportedly issued in the name of one Abdul Ali by the DTO, Kamrup, Assam. Whereas, when the transport office in Kamrup was contacted it was found that they had not issued any such ‘smart card’ under the said name.
The incident also puts a question mark on the reliability of the much touted National Crime Records Bureau – which is supposed to maintain a high-tech registry of all registered crimes in the country, including missing vehicles. It was learned that the NCRB seldom feeds the registry with latest information i.e. information on missing vehicles supplied from Nagaland. That is, using the NCRB software to detect vehicles reported stolen from this part of India in recent times rather become fruitless efforts.
Thus, one can but conclude how car lifters easily obtain fake registration papers for stolen vehicles.
Getting whiff of the incident, reporters visited one of the police stations in Dimapur to inquire on the recovery. They were however treated with some impolite words by the officer in-charge of the station – an NPS officer on probation. “You have no right to interfere in our investigation…. You have no right to question us,” was what the officer said while stating that they are doing their job; later directing the reporters to contact the district police PRO.
It was further learned that police had raided a location at Niu colony in Burma Camp after the recovery of the bike and arrested one man. The location was said to be a ‘showroom’ dealing in second-hand bikes while the arrested person was said to be its manager. The raiding team discovered three motor-cycles in the location, all said to bear ‘original papers’.
