RANCHI, SEPTEMBER 26: Of late, people of Patamda, a village 60 kms off Jamshedpur, in East Singhbhum district, are wondering what the local policemen are up to.The villagers allege that, on September 25, a group of eight persons led by the Sub-Inspector cum Officer-in-Charge of the Patamda Police station, Shyama Kant Yadav, tried to burgle the World Bank-sponsored Swarnarekha multi-purpose project's godown for engineering goods in Patamda.According to an FIR filed by 18 villagers on Monday morning, a truck (BR 16 G-06710 and an ambassador car (BR16L-9196) carrying Yadav, in uniform with his service revolver, and seven of his associates including the Rashtriya Janata Dal's district unit (commerce cell) President Narayan Choubey and constable Parmeshwar Nath arrived at the godown which was under locks on Sunday night.While Yadav sat in the car, his associates broke down the back wall to of the godown. Even as they were loaded the truck with angles and rods, the villagers woke up.Armed with bows and arrows, about 500 villagers, mostly tribals, sorrounded them. ``Daroga saheb (Yadav) threatened to open fire on us. But we didn't budge an inch. We moved forward yelling and shouting and caught hold of them,'' says Gopal Mahali and Nag Raj Kiskoo, two of the villagers who have filed the FIR.The villagers managed to catch hold of Yadav, Choubey and Parmeshwar, the yet-to-be identified truck driver and his khalasi (assistant) fled from the scene. ``We gave them a long chase, but couldn't catch them,'' Mahali told The Indian Express over telephone from Patamda.The villagers kept them in custody until the East Singhbhum SP A K Verma, SDO Vandana Dadel and Dy SP Shashi Bala arrived in the village the next morning. The villagers also forced the SI to wear a garland of shoesbefore handing him over to the officials.Incidentally, the Patamda Police station had registered two cases of theft of engineering goods amounting to Rs 12 lakh from this godown in 1998-99. Twotwo residents of the nearby Haldabni village are in jail facing charges of theft.``The policemen and politicians committed the theft and put the blame oninnocent villagers. We have exposed his crime,'' said Kiskoo. ``You are a journalist. Will you not tell the government to reward us for this,'' he asked.The police has, so far, not taken cognisance of the FIR. But the car and the truck loaded with about four tonnes of engineering goods worth were seized. Among the six culprits while Choubey and Parmeshwar were taken into custody for interrogations, Yadav was placed under suspension on the charge of conniving with them.Yadav who is undergoing `treatment' at M G M Hospital, Jamshedpur, has denied that he was party to the theft at the godown. In his statement, he has claimed that he was on patrolling duty at night when a group of anti-social elements whom he had booked earlier hatched a conspiracy to trap him.
