Bangalore thief sells stolen bikes, gives petrol as freebies

It used to be a unique used-motorcycle sale — you place an order for a used bike with Mohammad Salman, aka Sallu, and in just a couple of hours you will get your dream motorcycle at a throwaway price. And you get the vehicle delivered to your doorstep with its tank full.

The sale is now off, so don’t bother travelling to Mysore to pick up a bike for dirt cheap rates. For, Sallu is now behind the bars for stealing 55 motorcycles, which have been recovered by Metagalli police, Mysore.

“It was a record of sorts, 55 motorcycles were parked in the property parade of the Mysore police on Saturday and one would naturally ask how many vehicle thieves were caught. Their eyebrows were raised when we told this was the handiwork of one man,” said deputy commissioner of police, Mysore city, Basavaraj Malagatti.

The brain behind ‘operation Sallu’ was HM Mahadevappa, inspector of Metagalli police station in city. He labelled Sallu, 26, as a “smooth operator”. He said it was while working at the showroom of a two-wheeler company that Sallu learnt how to turn on the engine of a motorcycle without using a key.

The police inspector said Sallu used to take orders from his customers, luring them with low prices. In some cases, he sold motorcycles for just Rs10,000, making false promises of getting the documents signed by the seller in couple of days, which never materialised.

“It was one of the biggest hauls of stolen two-wheelers restored to their rightful owners,” said police commissioner, Sunil Agarwal.