Bihar: Thieves dig tunnel into railway yard and steal entire train engine

Muzaffarpur: An entire diesel engine was stolen, part by part, from a railway yard in Bihar's Begusarai district, police said on Friday. The thieves dug a tunnel to the yard and started stealing parts, slowly doing away with the entire engine that was brought there for repairs, they said.

"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 the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Muzaffarpur.

Based on the information given by them during interrogation, searches were conducted at a scrap godown in the Prabhat Nagar area of Muzaffarpur district, and 13 sacks full of train parts were found, he said.

A search is on for the owner of the scrap yard

"A search is on for the owner of the scrap yard, he added. Recovered items include engine parts, wheels from vintage train engines, and railroad parts made of heavy iron, he said. They had dug a tunnel to the railroad yard, and through it, they used to carry the locomotive parts and other items in sacks," said Dubey.

The gang is also involved in unbolting steel bridges and stealing their parts, he said. Last year, a railway engineer at Samastipur Loco Diesel Shed was suspended after he allegedly sold off an old steam engine kept at the Purnea Court premises.

The engineer had allegedly used a forged letter of the divisional mechanical engineer of Samastipur to sell the engine in connivance with other railway officials and security personnel.