Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (DV)
Udupi, Aug 10: Padubidri police successfully busted boat engine theft racket and arrested two accused who allegedly used to steal boat engines and sell them to Gujarat by creating fake documents.
The accused have been identified as Husain alias Saleem (43), resident of Permannur Ulliya House, Ullal and Ismail Husain (46), resident of Ullal Kodi.
During the raid police also seized three Yamaha engine of 9.9 horse power, two Suzuki engine total worth of Rs 5.5 lacs, a lorry worth Rs 8 lacs, an auto rickshaw worth Rs 65,000, a maruthi car worth Rs 1 lac.
It is said that they used to steal at night when boats were halted. After stealing engines they used to load them in the lorry to transport it to Gujarat. But police arrested them during the night patrolling.
Details:
Engine robbery was rampant in coastal region and there were several complaints on this issue. Saleem and Husain are friends and were indulged in fishing business.
On Friday Aug 8 after stealing the engine from a boat in Malpe, they kept the engine in Uchila in their relative's house.
After stealing the engine they used to transport it to Mangalore inorder to create fake documents and later from Mangalore it was sold to Gujarat. They used to transport the engine by hiding it in the dry fish fertilizer lorry.
They were transporting the engine from Uchil to Mangalore in an auto on Friday night.
Padubidri police who were on night patrolling asked them to stop their auto near Yermal but the accused did not stop. The police caught them near Padubidri check post.
According to the sources, the accused tried to defend themselves by showing the fake documents and claiming that the engines belonged to them. When the police tried to trace out the engine numbers, they were not matching and hence they were taken into custody for further interrogation, it is learnt.
It is learnt that the accused have stolen more than 25 engines from places like Manjeshwara, Ullala, Bengre, Bolara, Bandur, Mukka, Gangoli and Malpe in past 2-3 years.
Police have seized five boat engines which were stolen recently. Left over engine numbers and names have been scratched out.
Link with terrorists:
During the last Mumbai attack, terrorists had came from Gujarat using the fake engines. As the stolen engines were sold to Gujarat by creating fake documents it is assumed that accused may have link with the terrorists.
It is said that the information given by them during the interrogation were baseless.
On authentic information, Saturday police have also seized the lorry which was used to transport the engines on Saturday August 9.
Several thefts came to light:
After the arrest, several boat owners have come forward to file complaints saying that their boat engines have been stolen. Several thefts in the coastal region are coming to light.
Police also assured to probe the engine theft cases throughout the state by the information they have obtained in this case.
Accused were produced to the court.
Under the guidance of additional SP Santhosh Kumar, Karkala, assistant superintendent Annamali, circle inspector, Padubidri police inspector Ajmath Ali along with Suresh, Sunder, Harish Putran, Shridhar, Rajesh, Prashanth, Ramesh, Vishwajeeth, Dharmappa, Nagesh, Rajesh Byndoor, Manjunath Raghu, drivers Santhosh, Jagadish and homeguards Manoj Prabhakar took part in the raid.