A Rural Works Department assistant engineer was arrested in Bihar’s Siwan district for allegedly sending a Rs 1 crore extortion threat to his senior officer while posing as a Maoist area commander, police said. The arrest followed a complaint by RWD executive engineer Rajesh Kumar Chaudhary and was made within 48 hours of the case being registered.
The accused, Rafiq Alam, was posted as assistant engineer, Sadar-1, in the department’s Siwan-1 works division. According to Siwan Town police, Chaudhary received the threat letter by post on the evening of November 10. The letter demanded Rs 1 crore and warned that the officer would be attacked with AK-47 rifles if he failed to pay.
The letter was signed in the name of Loha Singh, described by the sender as a Maoist area commander of the Tirhut region. It instructed Chaudhary to deliver the money on November 14 to a person wearing a red scarf and waiting in a black Scorpio on the road towards Saguna Mor in Patna.
Chaudhary filed a complaint at the Town police station on the same evening. Siwan Town police station SHO Avinash Kumar said investigators used digital and human intelligence to trace the letter to Alam, who worked in the same RWD division as the complainant.
Police said Alam was upset with the conduct of the senior executive engineer. The SHO said Alam had previously written several letters to his department, the district administration and the vigilance authorities, seeking legal action against the officer. When he allegedly received no response, he is accused of sending the extortion letter.
The case places an alleged internal dispute within a public works department at the centre of a criminal investigation. The RWD is responsible for implementing and maintaining rural road and other works programmes, making the involvement of departmental personnel a matter of administrative concern as well as law enforcement.
Police have identified Alam as a native of Sarai Fakra Badh village under Kudra police station in Kaimur district. He is the son of Azizul Rahman. The report did not provide details of the specific departmental complaints Alam had previously submitted or identify any response from the executive engineer named in the allegations.
Alam has been sent to judicial custody. Further proceedings will determine the evidence supporting the extortion and intimidation allegations, while the police investigation continues.
