Mantu Sharma, who was brought to Patna from Lucknow today, told the police that many top officials with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) were involved with his gang.

The gangster alleged that these officials "managed" contracts.

"The officials of the department wanted us to manage their tenders," said Sharma today. "This would prove to be advantageous for them. We never paid the officials directly. The contractors working under us did the job and they would, in turn, ensure that contractors working with us got the tenders."

One half of the Sambhu-Mantu gang, Mantu Sharma was arrested for the first time by the police from Lucknow on Sunday. "He has criminal cases piling up against him since 1991," Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj told The Telegraph.

"A special task force team arrested Mantu from Muzaffarpur, around two years ago," said the SSP. " He was in prison for a year after which he got bail. His arrest is a huge achievement because his gang has given shape to numerous criminal incidents in over two decades in many districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They were spreading branches in Jharkhand. Mantu alone has nine cases against him in Patna alone."

Mantu (46) passed his Class X board exams from a school in Siwan district in 1984.

After completing his graduation from Banaras Hindu University, he worked as a medical representative for some time in Uttar Pradesh. He came back to Bihar later and started working as a contractor. In 1991, he met Bhutkun Shukla, a don in north Bihar.

" Mantu has built up a strong network of officials from the Central Public Works Department and contractors," an officer said. "All major contracts of the department go to contractors working with the gang. Their terror has been such that other contractors have been forced to either leave the business or run away from the state."

"After Bhutkun's death, I continued to work with Sambhu, whom I met in 1998, and started penetrating the department," said Mantu. " We still work together but I wanted to leave three years back when I was arrested. But the contractors pulled me back in. Recently, our contractors were successful in getting three major contracts worth almost Rs 10 crore."