Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, April 10
Bikranganj police on Sunday arrested 10 people in connection with theft of a river road over bridge on Ara Sone Canal two days back.
According to an FIR lodged with Nasriganj police station by Arshad Kamal Shamsi, junior engineer of Irrigation department, the bridge materials including 500 tons of iron and steel worth Rs 59 lakh were stolen by some unidentified people two days ago.
Shamsi said he contacted had counterpart at Dehri on Son and he claimed the materials were not taken away by his department either. He also suspected theft of the bridge materials.
Shamshi in his FIR said local villagers told him people had come with JCB machine and trucks two days ago and lifted the entire bridge that was 60 feet long,10 feet wide and 12 feet height with nuts and bolts too.
According to the FIR, entire bridge was dismantled and materials taken away in several trips by trucks.
Pawan Kumar, former block head in a letter to the chief engineer of Sone canal project alleged involvement of department employees in the theft of the bridge constructed on Sone canal and lying unused for the last five years.
The Sub divisional police officer of Bikram Ganj, Shashibhushan Singh said those arrested include a casual employee of the irrigation department, scrap dealers, owners and drivers of the trucks and pick up vans on which dismantled bridge was transported. Police also arrested owner of a weighing machine on highway where materials of the abandoned bridge were weighed.
Those arrested by special investigation team of Rohtas district police include a gazetted officer, sub divisional officer of irrigation department. The others include a local leader of RJD,Shivkakyan Bhardwaj,scrap dealer, Sachidanand Singh,truck owner,Arwind Kumar, government employee, Ajit Kumar, Jitendra Chaudhary, Gopal Shah.
SDPO said gas cutters used in the dismantling of bridge has also been recovered.
District SP of Rohtas, Ashish Bharti on Saturday visited the bridge site for investigation.
