This is what came in yesterdays Mumbai mirror.....
Abandoned bike may be linked to import scam
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Cops suspect owner may not have lodged a missing complaint for the high-end bike with no number plates, as it may have been illegally brought into the country "
>> An imported bike worth Rs 22 lakh, which was abandon ed in a private society on Sunday, maybe a missing link in the superbike-importing scam Oshiwara police had busted in May this year.
Police recovered a Suzuki Boulevard bike, found in the Cozihom Apartment on Pali Hill, after residents complained that the motorcycle was taking up too much parking space. M G Pote, Senior PI, Khar Police Station said, “The motorcycle is a large model and bears no number plates. We brought the bike to the police station on Sunday evening.”
Dilip Suryawanshi, ACP, D N Nagar division said, “It is quite possible that the bike could have been brought here by the same gang that imported the superbikes in May.”
According to the watchman on duty at the time, a man wearing dirty jeans and T-shirt parked the bike inside the compound of the complex on Wednesday last week. Watchman Chhotelal Gupta said, “The man told me the bike belonged to Ranjeev Bindra, who lives in the complex’s A Block and was out at the time. He told me that the bike had many mechanical issues, and he was bringing it back, because it could not be fixed. Assuming that the man was a mechanic, I did not probe further.
“After several days, residents began complaining that the bike was causing serious parking difficulties, and asked manager Ravi Chaudhari to have the bike removed. When we asked the Bindras, we were told they owned no such bike. That is when we alerted police. Even when the ‘mechanic’ brought the bike, it had no number plates.”
Police suspect that the bike may have been stolen for a joyride, and then abandoned. The owner may have avoided complaining to police to avoid having it seized, since it was imported illegally.
CASE BACKGROUND
In May, a second-hand car dealer, Kunjan Choudhary, was arrested from Jogeshwari by the then-DCP Niket Kaushik’s special squad. Choudhary told interrogators that he collected the bikes from one Nadir Ali. Police recovered three bikes from Choudhary, who also led investigators to five other motorcycles recovered from a few city-based builders and an IT businessman.
Ali has been in this business of importing high-end bikes since the past two years. He would buy parts from Singapore and bring them to India in pieces, so that he was charged lesser customs duty. He would then assemble the bikes in a garage in Mumbai, and give them to Choudhary to sell on a commission basis. Ali registered these bikes with the RTO after submitting forged documents. Two of the bikes recovered from Choudhary did not even have number plates, much like the bike recovered from Khar. The matter is currently with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), who are investigating it further.
A constable from Khar Police Station checks out the recently recovered Suzuki Boulevard motorbike
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11-18-2009, 12:16 PM
Suzuki Boulevard dumped in Pali Hill
