Unclaimed 2-wheelers cause stir among officials

CHENNAI: The suspicious presence of unclaimed motorcycles, rusting at the parking lots of suburban railway stations in Chennai for several months, has caused many raised eyebrows among security officials. Waking up to these hitherto unnoticed two-wheelers, left behind by unidentified people, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at the Mambalam Railway Station have notified the concerned authorities, seeking their intervention. This should bring the facts (about the motorcycles) to the forefront. According to sources, eight two-wheelers and 25 bicycles were identified as unclaimed at Mambalam over a period ranging from six months to two years. If the vehicles are handed over to the railways Lost Property Office functioning at Salt Quarters, arrangements would be made by officials there to locate the owners, and that may in turn explain the presence of these motorcycles, the sources added. There are also as many as 100 vehicles reportedly lying unclaimed in various cycle stands dotted across the Egmore-Tambaram stretch in South Chennai. “A chunk of the unclaimed vehicles are likely to be stolen two-wheelers, dumped by anti-social elements in parking lots to evade the attention of cops,” reliable sources in the know claimed. “Criminals indulge in chain snatching, using stolen vehicles. Since eyewitnesses could easily identify the vehicle, they park it in a cycle stand and vanish after the heist,” the sources observed. Another clandestine practice adopted by a few genuine but corrupt owners is to abandon their vehicles for gain. They park their vehicles at cycle stands and subsequently register a missing vehicle complaint with the local police station. This modus operandi yields better value for used vehicles than their resale value. When contacted, Government Railway Police (GRP) sleuths underscored that it was the responsibility of the cycle stand contractor to inform the police about unclaimed vehicles. Necessary action would be initiated based on a notification from the contractor, the officials clarified.