The ‘Barbatti’ Link: Scrap Mafia Mastermind Still at Large
By Shubhankar Shukla| Rootsalert KORBA — In the dead of night, nearly 10 tonnes of steel vanished from the banks of the Hasdeo canal. There was no earthquake, no demolition order, and no official machinery at work. Instead, it was gas cutters, a transport truck, and the sheer audacity of the local scrap mafia.
Chhattisgarh police confirmed on Saturday that they have cracked the bizarre case of the “stolen bridge” in Korba district, arresting five individuals. However, the operation has peeled back the layers on a sophisticated scrap smuggling network operating in the region.
The Night the Bridge Disappeared For nearly 40 years, the 70-foot steel bridge served as a lifeline for locals crossing the Hasdeo Left Bank Canal. On the night of January 16, it stood firm. By the morning of January 17, only the severed iron stumps remained.
According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Siddharth Tiwari, the theft wasn’t an impulsive act. “It was a meticulously planned extraction,” sources in the department revealed. The accused allegedly used industrial-grade gas cutters to slice the bridge into transportable sections, loading the heavy girders onto trucks before sunrise.
The ‘Barbatti’ Connection While five operatives are behind bars, police investigations point to a larger mastermind: Mukesh Sahu, known locally by his alias “Barbatti.”
Sahu is suspected of running an organized syndicate that targets public infrastructure for scrap metal. Police raids on local scrap yards have already recovered sliced portions of the stolen bridge, which serve as the primary evidence in the case. The administration is now moving to file an externment notice against Sahu, signaling a zero-tolerance approach to habitual offenders.
A Close Call for Residents The theft was not just a loss of property; it was a flirtation with disaster. The thieves also cut through heavy iron guards protecting a crucial municipal water pipeline running parallel to the bridge.
“Had the pipeline been damaged during the cutting process, we would be looking at a severe water crisis for over 2 lakh people,” a municipal official noted. Fortunately, the water supply remains unaffected.
Echoes of Bihar This incident has drawn immediate comparisons to the 2022 Rohtas case in Bihar, where a 500-tonne bridge was stolen by thieves posing as irrigation officials. The Korba incident serves as a stark reminder that as scrap metal prices rise, public infrastructure in remote areas becomes a lucrative target for organized crime.
What’s Next? The Sit (Special Investigation Team) is currently tracking the financial trail of the sold scrap to link it definitively to the absconding mastermind. For the residents of Korba, the immediate question remains: when will their bridge return?
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RootsAlert Analysis: Why Scrap Theft is Rising
The theft in Korba highlights a growing vulnerability in unmanned public infrastructure. With industrial scrap iron prices hovering between ₹30 to ₹45 per kg, a 10-tonne bridge represents a potential payout of nearly ₹4 lakhs on the black market. This profit margin incentivizes high-risk thefts, turning remote bridges and pipelines into soft targets.
