SAMBALPUR: Police busted an inter-state gang involved in stealing iron pipes meant for water supply projects of the government and arrested nine of its members on Friday.
Briefing media persons, Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo said as the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation department is laying underground pipelines in several districts, ductile iron (DI) pipes have been dumped at multiple places for the project.
The gang was stealing the pipes and transporting those to nearby states. “The theft was being carried out in an organised manner and Md Imran was the mastermind of the crime. We arrested the accused persons from different places and they have confessed to their crimes during interrogation,” said the SP.
In order to steal the pipes, the gang members divided the work equally among themselves. Some members were tasked with doing recce in different districts to identify the spots where the pipes were dumped. Subsequently, labourers were engaged to load the pipes in heavy vehicles. The stolen pipes were then transported to neighbouring states, mostly Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. The accused also used two motorcycles to escort the heavy vehicle to ensure the smooth passage of the stolen goods.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the gang committed over 30 such offences in Boudh, Balangir, Sonepur, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh and Sambalpur districts. Police seized 31 250 mm DI pipes worth around Rs 9 lakh, one truck, two cars, Rs 87,000 cash and 10 mobile phones were seized from the gang members.
The accused are Basudev Oram, Jashobanta Bhoi, Bikash Das, Md Imran and Firoz Khan, all from Sambalpur, besides Amir Samanta of West Bengal, Sandeep Agrawal of Cuttack, Sanjiv Pandit and Anil Pansari of Raipur.
Bhamoo said the accused were booked under sections 379, 413, 34 and 120 (B) of the IPC. Further investigation is underway to identify other places from where the gang might have stolen pipes. Efforts are also on to nab others involved in the racket, he added.