PATNA: A bike stolen from Boring Road area in Patna five years ago was found in use by an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police at Dumka in Jharkhand.
On December 23, an SMS to the owner, Diwakar Kumar, from the authorized service station of the two-wheeler company where the bike was for servicing, led to its recovery. He had purchased the bike in June 2012. It was stolen from his residence near AN College in Patna on May 28, 2015 and police had not been able to trace it till now.
Diwakar told TOI over phone on Friday that he had forgotten about the theft. “I was confused, shocked and was also excited after suddenly receiving the SMS at around 6.30pm on Wednesday. I rushed to S K Puri police station where a police officer guided me to ignore the SMS citing it as a fraud,” he said.
Kumar, a contractor by profession, said he contacted a friend who suggested him to immediately call the company’s customer care number. “I remained on call with customer care for almost 45 minutes. They verified the details like name, place of showroom from where bike was purchased, engine and chassis number,” he said.
Kumar said they asked him repeatedly to read complete SMS. “As I was nervous, I didn’t realize that part of SMS was to be expanded in which mechanic’s number was mentioned. I finally got to know that my bike was at a service centre in Dumka town. I contacted Town police station in Dumka, but didn’t get any help,” he said.
He said an email complaint was sent to senior police authorities in Dumka on Thursday after which he received a call from Dumka SP, who took case details. “I later came to know that the SP suspended the ASI who was using my stolen bike,” he added.
An assistant sub-inspector of police named PK Singh from S K Puri police station was sent to Dumka on Friday. SHO Satish Kumar Singh said things would become further clear once the ASI reaches Dumka and carries out further investigation. “We will wait for direction from the senior authorities that if the Jharkhand police ASI could be arrested or not for using a stolen bike,” he said.