Kathmandu, June 11

Metropolitan Traffic Police Division today handed over 21 motorcycles, which it retrieved from different places of the country, to respective owners.

The motorcycles were lifted by racketeers from Kathmandu Valley and sold to their clients in rural and peri-urban areas of the country. DIG Mingmar Lama, MTPD in-charge, turned over the two-wheelers to respective owners after verification of documents.

In response to 667 complaints relating to bike theft so far this fiscal, traffic cops retrieved 269 suspicious two-wheelers and returned 195 of them to concerned owners. The MTPD still has 74 motorcycles in its custody. Search for the remaining stolen bikes is on, said MTPD.

MPTD deploys sleuths in remote hill areas to intercept stolen bikes. Almost all two-wheelers lifted from the city are sold to clients in rural parts that have road networks but lack presence of law enforcement officials.

Hospital and cinema hall premises, and busy markets are more vulnerable to bike thefts. Racketeers are found selling a stolen bike for Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000, depending on its condition. DIG Lama suggested the bike owners to park their two-wheelers in secure places with handles locked.

“Intelligent locking system having double lock option could make it difficult for racketeers to lift motorcycles,” he said.

Traffic police had retrieved 193 stolen motorcycles in 2015-16. Despite the MTPD’s success in bringing down reported cases of motorcycle theft in recent years, a new figure shows a slight increase in property crime in the current fiscal compared to the previous one.

Victim Support Unit at MTPD registered a total of 667 complaints of bike theft in 2016/17 against 488 in 2015/16 and 473 in 2014/15. Still the cases of bike theft reported in 2016/17 are far less than what the traffic police dealt with from 2010-11 to 2013-14. According to statistics, MTPD received 1,532 missing complaints of bike in 2010-11, 1,453 in 2011-12, 852 in 2012-13 and 788 in 2013-14.