According to the authorities, a whole diesel engine was taken piece by piece from a railway yard in the Begusarai region of Bihar.

The robbers allegedly constructed a tunnel to the yard and started removing pieces before progressively stealing the complete engine that had been brought there for maintenance. The engine was progressively stolen while the train was being taken to Garhara yard for maintenance.

After a police report was made at the Barauni police station, the entire affair was brought to light. Following the reports, the Railway Police Force (RPF) started questioning people to identify the missing components.

“Last week, a case was registered at the Barauni police station for the theft of a diesel engine brought for repairs to the Garhara yard. In the course of the investigation, three people were arrested,” said PS Dubey, the inspector of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Muzaffarpur.

Searches were carried out at a scrap godown in the Prabhat Nagar neighbourhood of the Muzaffarpur district based on the information provided by them during questioning, he added, and 13 bags full of railway components were discovered there.

He stated that the owner of the scrap godown is being sought after. He mentioned that recovered objects include engine pieces, wheels from historic train engines, and hefty iron rail sections. According to Dubey, “They had excavated a tunnel to the railway yard and used to carry the locomotive components and other stuff in sacks through it.”

According to him, the gang also steals the components from steel bridges that have been unbolted. An antique steam engine that was stored on the grounds of the Purnea court was reportedly auctioned off by a railway engineer from Samastipur Loco Diesel Shed last year, leading to his suspension.

In collusion with other railway officials and security personnel, the engineer reportedly sold the engine using a falsified letter from the divisional mechanical engineer of Samastipur.