Mangaluru : The Vitla police have arrested six persons, who are allegedly involved in a number of cases of theft of arecanut from houses.

The accused were also involved in the theft of cattle and motorcycles, the police said. The police gave the names of the accused as Bareek (32) of Manjeshwar in Kerala; Bashir (25), Ashraf (19) and Saifuddin (19), all from Vitla Padnur village; Jabir (26) from Balepuni village; and Jubair K. from Kudtamuger village in Bantwal.

The police said they stole arecanut from a shop in Kolanudu village in Bantwal. They drugged the pet dogs of Shrinivas Acharya and Ratnakar Shetty and took away bags containing arecanut.

They allegedly stole cattle from a few houses in Alike Madiyal and Alake Majalu villages.

The police said Bashir was an accused in 19 cases of theft in the district.

He was also involved in cases of vehicle theft registered in Kasaragod and Manjeshwar.

Bashir was also involved in a case of rape of a minor girl from Vitla.

The police have recovered from the accused two pick-up vehicles, two cars, an autorickshaw and 1500 kg of stolen arecanut.

The Bantwal Town police arrested Pinto Rawat from Hugli district of West Bengal for his alleged involvement in the theft of 274 grams of gold ornaments from Apoorva Jewellers on B.C. Road. The police said that Pinto Rawat left the shop on June 6 evening telling his owner Sunil that he was going to have tea at a nearby shop. Sunil then found gold ornaments missing. On the complaint, a team of Bantwal Town police traced Rawat in Amarapur Kankul village of Hugli. They recovered 229 grams of gold stolen from the shop.