TURA, June 2: West Garo Hills police have issued an advisory to the general public to ensure proper locking of their vehicles at night to check against vehicle lifting which has once again begun to create a problem in the region with as many as four vehicles stolen in the last 2-3 weeks.

“Most of the incidents appear to be happening late in the night or early morning hours when people are asleep. We have beefed up our police patrols and also cracked some of the cases,” reveals West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police V S Rathore.

He said that there has been an upward trend in vehicle theft especially motorcycles and scooters with an average of 3-4 cases being reported in months.

Police control room number for the public- 8837423053 has been given so that alert public or vehicle owners can contact if they find anyone tampering with vehicles.

But police have made a number of breakthroughs recently. Two criminals behind the theft of a motorcycle from Tura were caught in Dalu border town and the two wheeler was also recovered from their possession.

‘Inter-state gang actively involved’

SP Rathore said that an inter-state gang with strong links in Assam’s Goalpara, Agia and Mankachar towns are aiding the local thieves by changing the engine and chassis number with sophisticated tools.

When the stolen bike was recovered in Dalu police found that the criminals had totally changed the chassis number and the engine number. On interrogation the arrested thieves revealed that they had used sophisticated machines to change and escape checking.

In last two weeks there have been four vehicle thefts, two in North Garo Hills and another two in West Garo Hills districts.

For better coordination, a combined investigation between police from Assam and Garo Hills has started to nab the inter-state gang.

“With the combined probe we are getting a better flow of information from different thanas and arrests are taking place. We hope to be able to break this menace soon,” said SP Rathore.