PATNA – In a bizarre incident in eastern India, a gang pulled off an extraordinary heist as it dismantled and then decamped with a 60 feet iron bridge in Bihar State’s Rohtas District.
Reports in Indian media said the gang used bulldozers, pickup vans and gas cutters to pull to pieces the 500-tonne bridge with the help of the locals.
The daylight robbery has caused a sensation in the Bihar State, which is one of the poorest in the South Asian country. The entire operation reportedly took about three days and the gang managed to escape with the scrap metal.
Bihar |60-feet long-abandoned steel bridge stolen by thieves in Rohtas district
Villagers informed some people pretending as mechanical dept officials uprooted bridge using machines like JCB & gas-cutters. We've filed the FIR:Arshad Kamal Shamshi, Junior Engineer,Irrigation dept pic.twitter.com/o4ZWVDkWie
— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2022
An official of the Indian irrigation department told a publication that residents informed them that a group of men posing as irrigation officials had dismantled the bridge using heavy machines.
Following the incident, a case has been lodged against impostors and sketches of the accused were being made. Scrap dealers have been alerted about the incident.
The stolen iron bridge was built over the Arrah Canal in the state’s Amiyawar village around 1972. However, it was not in use these days due to its dilapidated structure.
Residents were also chipping away at the half-century-old bridge ever since another bridge was built nearby for traffic.
