Nearly two kilometres of an abandoned railway track worth crores of rupees was found to have been stolen and sold to scrap dealers in Madhubani district of Bihar, allegedly with the connivance of Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. Two RPF personnel have been suspended in connection with the incident.
The track, under Samastipur Railway Division and connecting Pandaul station with Lohat Sugar Mill in the district, had been left abandoned for a long time following the closure of the mill.
According to Bum Bum Thakur, a villager, the thieves, posing as railway employees, had cut the track and sold it to scrap dealers. Once the villagers noticed a part of the track was missing, they informed the local police and RPF officials. Following this, a team of Darbhanga RPF along with Railway Vigilance started investigation into the incident. Two local RPF personnel –Srinivas and Mukesh Kumar Singh – were put under suspension on the charge of ‘dereliction of duty’.
“A departmental level inquiry committee has been formed for investigation and the two RPF personnel were suspended for not informing the theft incident to the department on time,” said Divisional Railway Manager of Samastipur Railway Division, Ashok Agrawal.
Not the first time
Earlier in April 2022, a 60-ft-long abandoned iron bridge built on River Sone was stolen by thieves posing as State Irrigation Department employees from Amiyawar village in Rohtas district of Bihar. Later, two mobile towers too were stolen from Patna’s Subzibagh and Yarpur Rajputana area of Gardanibagh areas by thieves posing as telecom workers.
In November 2022, an entire diesel engine was stolen part by part from a railway yard at Barauni in Begusarai district. The thieves had stolen parts of the railway engine over a period of time and allegedly sold them to scrap dealers.
Meanwhile, senior State BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha on Tuesday slammed the Nitish Kumar government for such bizarre cases of theft in Bihar. He said the law and order situation in the State had totally collapsed during the regime of “Bade bhai and Chhote Bhai” (elder brother and younger brother), an oblique reference to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar.
“Such incidents are bound to happen in this regime of Bade bhai-Chhote bhai. There is complete absence of law and order in the State these days,” alleged Mr. Sinha.
