Bihar: Engineer among 8 arrested in Rohtas bridge theft case

Patna: In a bizarre case of theft, a defunct 60-foot-long steel bridge at Patna was stolen on Friday by a group of robbers pretending to be officials from the state's irrigation department.

Notably, a Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) of the state Water Resources department was among eight arrested over the theft of the abandoned bridge in Rohtas district.

The thieves reportedly came prepared with bulldozers, pickup vans and gas cutters and dismantled the 500-tonne bridge with the help of local irrigation department officials and residents. The entire operation took about three days and they escaped with the scrap metals.

A JCB or excavator, some 247 kg of stolen iron channels and other incriminating material have been retrieved from the arrested people, the police said.

"We have arrested eight persons including an SDO officer of the water resources department in connection with the theft of the bridge. The thieves stole the bridge in connivance with the SDO. We have recovered one JCB, stolen iron channels weighing about 247 kg and other material," police officer Ashish Bharti told news agency ANI.

They likely sold it off in parts as scrap metal, the police said.

Villagers had assumed that the government decided to dismantle the old bridge, built over a water canal, as it was not in use.

On the day the "dismantling" began, the sub-divisional officer had allegedly called in sick to avoid being linked to the theft.

Reports say a government engineer was also present when the bridge was being taken apart.

The bridge was constructed over the Arrah canal in 1972 at Amiyawar village which comes under Nasriganj police station. As by now, it became quite old and was declared dangerous, the local villagers were not using it, and using a concrete bridge adjoining it.