Ahmedabad, September 11: IN two separate incidents, the police arrested three youths for resorting to crime in order to pay back huge debts they had incurred over the course of time. The arrests were made on Monday.

Tushar Patel (26) and Paresh Panchal (27), both residents of Nava Vadaj, took to stealing motorcycles while Mukesh Bava (33), a resident of Laxmipura in Unjha, was arrested with an unlicensed sophisticated Japanese pistol he had borrowed from his friend in order to rob people.

According to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch police, Tushar, a computer engineer running a computer software business in Nava Vadaj, had incurred huge debts in business due to his drinking habits, but had no means of paying back the money. Paresh, who runs a lath business in the same area, had similarly incurred a debt of Rs 3 lakh after he lost bets on cricket matches. “The duo planned to steal and sell motorcycles to pay back their debts. The duo confessed to have stolen five two-wheelers from areas like Shahibaugh, Vasna, Satellite and Drive-In since July. We have found two motorcycles but are yet to recover three more vehicles they had parked at Indraprastha Tower in Drive-In and Pratapnagar Garden in Satellite and went missing from there,’’ said Crime Branch Inspector C N Rajput.

In another case, Mukesh, who worked as a middleman in a transport business, ran into financial trouble when some of his customers allegedly failed to pay him money. To overcome financial crunch, his friend reportedly gave him a sophisticated pistol so he could extort money from people. “He had been planning to rob angadias and diamond merchants but was unable to get more people to join him in committign the crime. We nabbed him before he could achieve his purpose,’’ Rajput added.