The gang of bike lifters used to steal motorbikes from various towns of the state. The racket carried out its operations in places like Jajpur, Chandikhole, Paradip, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the police said.
"Fourteen bikes were seized from them. They used to keep watch on the movement of the owners before breaking open the lock and fleeing with motor bike. The motorbike owners who would go to hospitals and bus stands were their targets," Ranjan Kumar Dey, inspector of Kendrapara police station, said.
The arrested persons were identified as Babuli Das, Abu Basar, Seikh Nawaj Sharif, Seikh Rehmat, Sahid Ali, Abdula Khan and two others.
While Das was the mastermind of the racket, Seikh Rehmat, a motor garage owner, was receiver of stolen bikes. Rehmat used to dispose off the stolen bikes to prospective customers, the police said.
Excepting Das, who had history of past crimes, the rest of the criminals are first-timers and all of them are in their early twenties, the police officer said.
The gang lifted more than 50 motorbikes while 14 of them were recovered, sources said.