Thieves Who Dismantled 60-feet-long Bridge In Bihar Posed As Govt Officials

In a bizarre incident, thieves in Bihar’s Rohtas district ‘stole’ a defunct 60-foot-long steel bridge on Friday by pretending to be officials from the state’s irrigation department.?The thieves pulled off the act by posing as government officials carrying out repair works on Ara-Sone canal, which was built 45 years ago.

ANI

The?60-foot-long, 500-tonne iron bridge was reported missing by local villagers when they noticed it was missing on April 5.?Subsequently, the Water Resources Department on April 8 lodged an FIR against unknown people. The?FIR was lodged at the Nasirganj police station after?irrigation officials?realised that they were being duped.

How did they do it?

The thieves reportedly came prepared with bulldozers, pickup vans and gas cutters and dismantled the 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.

"People came with heavy machinery, gas cutters and worked for two days during the day time to dismantle the bridge," said Gandhi Chaudhary, 29, a villager.

How did they dupe locals?

Locals asked those working about their identity and were told they had been hired by the irrigation department to dismantle the bridge.?Earlier in the week the scrap metal was loaded into a vehicle and the site was vacated.

Infact, villagers had previously submitted an application to the irrigation department to dismantle the bridge, one resident said.

Probe so far?

"We have identified some members of the gang and some are yet to be tracked down. They destroyed public property and stole a bridge," said Subash Kumar, a police official probing the case.

The steel bridge was built over the Arrah canal in the state’s Amiyawar village around 1972 but it became defunct after it was declared dangerous and locals started taking a nearby concrete bridge.