JEYPORE: Sunabeda police on Wednesday arrested seven burglars including five from Andhra Pradesh for their alleged involvement in stealing and transporting iron construction materials from Bharatmala project near Sunki to other states.
They have been identified as AP Naidu, G Paban Kumar, Mohesh Bejiparapu, PS Narayan, P Apa Rao, all from Vizianagaram of AP, Murali Chopadi of Pottangi and Kiron Patel of Sunki village in Koraput district.
Sources said, the Bharatmala project works from Raipur to Visakhapatnam is on through Koraput bordering areas and very often stealing of iron materials takes place in this area.
On Tuesday, Bekem Infrastructure Private limited, working as contract agency reported huge quantity of iron materials meant for the Bharatmala site missing near Talagoleru village to police.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team recovered the stolen materials from four auto-rickshaws. Sunabeda SDPO Manbrat Satapathy said the accused persons were arrested when they were trying to transport the stolen materials to outside the state.
“We arrested seven persons and forwarded them to judicial custody in this connection. More investigation is on to nab other culprits involved in the stolen material case of Bharatmala project ,” the SDPO added.