The list of bizarre thefts in Bihar is just getting long with a pond being the latest addition after a 60-foot bridge and a train engine. An entire pond was vanished and had a hut built on it in Darbhanga district, leaving the locals baffled.
The sudden appearance of the hut prompted locals to inform the police but the land mafia, who are accused of having filled the pond to take over the land, had fled by the time police arrived, reported NDTV.
As per the report, the pond was publicly-owned and even maintained for fishing and other activities. But the pond became a target amid rising prices of land in Darbhanga.
When the pond-filling initially started, the locals had approached the authorities and the zonal officials had briefly stopped the work while making some seizures as well.
But the mafia carried out the levelling work secretly under the dark until the pond was entirely gone.
"People say the pond was filled with soil within 10-15 days. The work was done only at night. Officials had visited the spot earlier and even seized some items," said Amit Kumar, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), as per the report.
The pond-theft comes over a month after an entire diesel engine was stolen in November 2022, part by part from a railway yard in Begusarai. According to the police, the thieves had dug a tunnel till the yard and started stealing parts until the entire engine was gone which had come for repairs.
Earlier, an entire 60-foot bridge was stolen in Rohtas district. Eight accused were arrested in connection with the matter including a government officer. The authorities had also recovered 247 kilograms of iron channels from the accused.
The thieves had used JCBs and gas cutters to dismantle the bridge and making it disappear in just three days.