Varthur police on Sunday arrested a gang of three bike thieves accused of stealing expensive, high-end bikes. The police have recovered 16 bikes worth Rs 30 lakh from the gang.

The police arrested Azmath Khan alias Bullet Khan (24), Santosh Reddy (23) and Manjunath (25). All three are residents of Attibele in Bengaluru Rural and are college dropouts. They learnt to pick the locks of bikes from a mechanic. Expensive bikes like Royal Enfield and Duke are among the bikes they reportedly stole.

According to the police, the accused persons surveyed an area after identifying high-end bikes. They would break open its handle lock and push it for a distance before hotwiring it and speeding away from the area, as per Bangalore Mirror.

After stealing the bikes, the accused persons would sell the vehicles to customers across several locations, including Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, for prices as low as Rs. 30,000. The police believe that they had associates in Tamil Nadu who helped them in their operation and the trio built a steady line of customers through this business, as they were selling well-maintained bikes for low prices.  

But the gang's streak of luck ran out when a case emerged in Varthur Police station limits of a stolen Royal Enfield bike. Noticing a pattern in the cases, the police officials formed a special team to nab the gang of bike thieves.

The police first managed to apprehend Manjunath and following an interrogation, the police caught Azmath and Santosh, reported Deccan Herald.

The arrest also comes at a time police in KR Puram Police station urged owners of high-end bikes to install anti-theft devices and GPS trackers on their vehicles. The police are also tracking an inter-state gang which is stealing high-end bikes and have urged owners of bikes to comply with their requests.