Bhagalpur: Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ashish Bharati has suspended two assistant sub-inspector (ASI)-rank officers along with six constables and recommended the district magistrate for termination of the services of four home guards for allegedly letting overloaded trucks pass against bribe.

Bhagalpur has been struggling with acute traffic snarls, mainly owing to overloaded trucks which enter from Jharkhand and go to other places by crossing the Ganga bridge here.

According to the SSP, he took action against the cops on the basis of a probe report the Kahalgaon sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Dilnawaj Ahmad submitted recently.

"Earlier, a string of operations led by SDPO Ahmad was conducted. On the night of May 26, Ahmad, disguised as a truck driver, drove one from Mirjachouki (border of Bhagalpur with Sahebganj district of Jharkhand) and witnessed how police personnel concerned, along with employees of the district transport office (DTO), motor vehicles inspector (MVI) and the district mining office, were involved in the bribery extortion racket," Bharati informed.

According to the SDPO Ahmad, a truck driver had to pay bribe for his truck at several places at night. He later managed to arrest four persons collecting bribe from overloaded trucks on behalf of the police and other departments. Important documents and cash amounting to more than Rs 12 lakh was recovered from their makeshift office.

He said the modus operandi was to let overloaded trucks pass with sand, stone chips, stone boulders and other items from Jharkhand and steel bars from Odisha en route to different parts of the country.

The trucks enter into Bhagalpur territory from Mirjachouki and cross Vikramshila Ganga bridge covering a distance of 72km on National Highway 80. Trucks and vehicles enter from other points on NH-80 too to take the same bridge. "The gang used to extort money from trucks and give them password to be shared at the border check post to their accomplices, who collected the money from the drivers between the Pirpainty and Ghogha stretch of NH-80," Bharati added.

Many drivers and other eyewitnesses complained that each truck had to pay Rs 1,200-Rs 1,500 and not less than 5,000 vehicles ply on this road daily. "Hence, the gang members earned not less than Rs 75 lakh daily," admitted Lalu Mandal, a middleman arrested by SDPOAhmad. Lalu also confessed that the amount collected by the gang was equally distributed among the police and other departments concerned.

All the police personnel against whom the SSP has taken action were posted at different places, mainly police outposts from the checkpoint, between Mirjachouki border and Ghogha police outpost. SDPO Ahmad has given a detailed report along with a CD in which the footage of the suspended police personnel taking bribe from overloaded trucks is absolutely clear.

However, Bharti said departmental proceedings would be taken against the cops.

"We are also investigating the involvement of employees of other departments in the racket," he said, adding that no single person involved in the racket would not be spared.