The Bihar police on Monday busted an inter-state gang involved in stealing paddy from several state godowns, and arrested four people from Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh.
The police recovered the stolen paddy and equipment used for stealing, weighing and storing the foodgrain, Kaimur superintendent of police Lalit Mohan Sharma said.
According to their modus operandi, the gang came to bordering Bihar villages, broke open the godowns at night and frisked the paddy in trucks.
The SP formed a special team comprising various police officers and district intelligence unit in-charge Santosh Verma to identify and arrest the gang after eight cases of such theft were registered with Ramgarh, Durgawati, Mohania, Chainpur and Chand police stations.
The police traced the UP gang after ruling out the involvement of local criminals.
The special team conducted a raid at Mishrapura village under Saiyadraja police station in Chandauli on Monday, and nabbed four gang members identified as Gautam Paswan, Shiva Paswan, Manjay Chauhan and Shankar Yadav.
At least 142 bags of paddy, 500 empty bags, two electronic weighing machines, a mini truck, a bike, seven mobile phones and equipment used in breaking locks were recovered from a location the gang identified.
The arrested criminals revealed that one Ram Pravesh, alias Kangressi Singh, of Revsa village in Chandauli was the mastermind who provided vehicles and other equipment required for the theft.
The gang used to recce the godowns before stealing bags of paddy. After that, Singh purchased the stolen paddy at the rate of ₹1,400 per quintal, kept them in his godown and sold it at ₹2,200- ₹2,400 per quintal, the criminals told the police.
The raids were conducted with the help of UP police, Sharma added.
