A bizarre case of theft in Bihar has put the state, once again, in national headlines.
A 60-feet-long and 10-feet wide iron bridge that was built about 50 years ago over the Arrah canal, connecting the Amiyawar village to the other villages, has been stolen.
The bridge was cut out and sold in Rohtas, a southern district of Bihar. And the whole operation went on smoothly, without coming into anyone's attention.
It's not much of a surprise though when one is reminded that it was only in December when an engineer from the Samastipur Railway Division in Bihar sold off a railway locomotive engine, using fabricated paperwork. The scam was only discovered two days after he sold off the railway asset.
But this time, to sell the bridge, there was no document required either. It all happened in broad daylight.
BOOM spoke to locals and engineers to understand how the thieves managed to dismantle the bridge and take it to the scrap market without any intervention.
The Bridge
The iron bridge on the Arrah canal was built in 1976.
The canal, a local journalist Anurag Sharan, told BOOM is a very important source of irrigation water in Rohtas as well as Buxar. "It plays an important role in making Rohtas district 'rice bowl' of Bihar. There are few hydro power installations on the canal as well," he said. The bridge connected the villages that the canal divided.
Before the bridge was built, locals used wooden boats to cross the canal. "A boat capsized in the early eighties and many people died. So, the Bihar government constructed an iron bridge," another local journalist Rahul Mishra said.
In the early 2000s after a concrete bridge was built nearby, people stopped using the iron bridge.
"A new concrete bridge parallel to the iron bridge was constructed around 15 years ago and since then the old bridge was abandoned," Sunil Kumar Singh, a local resident of Amiyawar village told BOOM.
The old bridge had become shabby and rusted, and animals would often get trapped in the crevices of the breaks and tears. Sometimes, corpses of animals would get trapped in the pillars that were built to support the bridge.
"It led to a stench in the village," Gandhi Chaudhary, representative of mukhiya, panchayat chief of Amiyawar village told BOOM.
On 31 March, he had written to the sub divisional officer (SDO) of irrigation department (Nasriganj) to dismantle the bridge "as soon as possible".
How Did The Bridge Get Stolen?
Within 24 hours after he sent the letter, a few people carrying earth-movers, gas cutters and trucks reached the village and started dismantling the bridge in broad daylight. They arrived on 1 April.
"When a few locals asked them who they were and where they came from, they said they were from the Dehri office (regional office) of the irrigation department," Chaudhary told BOOM.
Chaudhary claims that there was also one employee from the irrigation department with the team of thieves. "The locals knew him so they assumed they must be from the irrigation department," he said.
"When they told us they are government employees, we believed. After all, thieves cannot come in broad daylight along with half a dozen vehicles, earth mover and gas cutters," a local resident Sahil told BOOM.
In three days, the group dismantled the bridge completely and sold it off.
It was not until 7 April when the village of Amiyawar woke up to read the breaking news: The 50-year-old bridge was not dismantled by the irrigation department. It was stolen.
"What we have come to know so far is that they (the thieves) used 8-10 light duty trucks to carry the 500 tonnes of iron," Chaudhary said.
No Bridge: How Did It Get Discovered?
The bizarre theft would have remained buried for some more time had the local people not informed Arshad Kamal Shamsi, a junior engineer at Sone canal upper division.
"I was getting irrigation channel work done when villagers came to me and told me about the dismantling of the iron bridge. Villagers also told me that persons who were cutting the bridge told them that they were doing it on departmental order. I immediately called a senior officer who denied any such order. Finally I submitted a written application at Nasriganj police station on 6th April, " Shamsi told BOOM.
His application at the police station says, "Iron bridge has been dismantled in the last two days by unknown thieves and when local people asked they told that they were doing it on departmental order."
The police have lodged an FIR under section 379 of Indian Penal Code.
The theft has left the government officials red-faced, so much so that the superintendent of police had to visit the spot and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed. The locals say that Rohtas SP Ashish Bharati visited the spot, twice.
The SP said that the investigation has revealed the names of Arvind Kumar, an employee of the irrigation department and SDO Radheshyam Singh of Sone canal upper division. "They have played a role in the bridge theft," he said.
"We also came to know that one vehicle which was used to transport the dismantled bridge belonged to a local person of Amiyawar village," he added.
So far, the police have arrested eight persons including Arvind Kumar and Radheshyam Singh. Four among the arrested are accused of buying the iron and one person, the police say, had taken money to protect the thieves while they were stealing the bridge.
Police have seized a JCB machine (earth excavator), gas cutting torches, LPG cylinder, a pick-up van and a part of the bridge weighing 247 kgs.
The remaining accused, the SP said, will be arrested soon. He has announced a reward to the police officers who cracked the case.
Who Is To Be Blamed?
One employee with Sone canal upper division told BOOM that had there been permanent employees to monitor the canal, this would not have happened.
On the condition of anonymity, he said, "Earlier, we had many permanent employees for the field monitoring of the canal. All the employees have retired long ago and not a single permanent employee has been recruited. All the posts are vacant. So there is no monitoring of the canal."
With no permanent employees, the canal monitoring work is done by daily wage labourers, only during the irrigation seasons.
The canal is monitored from 25th December to 10th March and from 25th May till Chhath puja. Rest of the time it remains abandoned," he said.
The iron bridge was dismantled strategically in the first week of April when there was no one to keep an eye on the canal.
Bihar's Bizarre Thefts
For many villagers, the stolen bridge reminded them of Natwarlal, the notorious con man from Bihar, who had repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the Parliament House of India.
This is not an isolated case of ludicrous theft.
In December last year, a train engine kept near Purnia court railway station was stolen and sold. The investigation revealed the role of an insider in this case too.
According to the media reports, an engineer used a forged letter and claimed that it was issued by Samastipur's divisional mechanical engineer.
Five persons were arrested but the three main accused, including the engineer, are still at large. Recently, the Railway court put out property seizure notice against the three accused. It said that if they do not surrender at the police station, their properties will be seized.